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72 






A CHILD'S GUIDE TO 
AMERICAN HISTORY 



BY 



HENRY WILLIAM ELSON 

AUTHOR OF "history OF THE UNITED STATES," " SIDE LIGHTS 

ON AMERICAN HISTORY," "SCHOOL HISTORY OF 

THE UNITED STATES," ETC. 



< . 



*i-^-A«fc 



New York 
THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 

1909 



Copyright, 1909, by 
THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 



Published, July, 1909 






THE TROW PRESS, NEW YORK 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAQK 

I. Introductory 11 

II. How Europe Found America .... 15 
Columbus — The Voyage. 

III. Exploring the New World .... 23 

Ponce de Leon — Ferdinand de Soto — The Indian 
Queen — The Mississippi — La Salle and Louisiana. 

IV. The First Settlers 36 

The Father of the English Colonies— The Lost Col- 
ony. 

V. The Permanent Colonies 41 

The "Mayflower"— New York— William Penn and 
the Quakers — The Walking Purchase — The Story 
of Georgia. 

VI. A Long Struggle for a Continent . . 54 

The Buried Plates — Boyhood of a Great Man — The 
Story of Regina Hartman — End of the Long War. 

VII. Beginnings of the Revolution ... 70 
Spirit of the Americans — A Fight for a Valley. 

VIII. Victory in the End 80 

Brandywine — Lydia Darrah — Valley Forge — 
France to the Rescue — Franklin — A Valiant French- 
man — A Trip to the South — A Tale of Two Preach- 
ers — King's Mountain — An Affair at Yorktown. 

3 



Contents 

CHAPTER PAGE 

IX. Settlement of the Ohio Valley . . . 104 

The Story of Simon Kenton — ^The Story of Ruf us 
Putnam — The Romance of Western Migration — 
Life in the Wilderness. 

X. Some Incidents in the Second Wak with 

England 124 

Impressment of Seamen — ^The Two Hulls — Perry's 
Victory on Lake Erie — A Famous Victory. 

XI. Improvement in Transportation . . . 137 

The First Roadmakers — Coming of the Steamboat 
— Artificial Rivers — The Railroad. 

Xll. Odds and Ends 146 

Albert Gallatin — Dolly Madison — A Visitor from 
France — A Bloodless Duel — Inauguration of "Old 
Hickory" — ^A Captain of the Black Hawk War — 
A Carriage Drive in England — A Sad Ending to an 
Excursion Party — Morse and the Telegraph — ^The 
Creole affair. 

XIII. Texas and Oregon ....... 176 

Revolution in Texas — "Remember the Alamo" — 
Texas joins the Sisterhood — Oregon in the early 
days— "Fifty-four Forty or Fight." 

XIV. The Mexican War and California . . 192 

Zachary Taylor — Winfield Scott — The Golden 

State. 

XV. A Batch op Biographies 205 

Jenny Lind — Louis Kossuth — Lewis Cass — Frank- 
lin Pierce — James Buchanan — Harriet Beecher 
Stowe — Salmon Portland Chase. 

4 



Contents 

CHAPTER PAOK 

XVI. The Decade Before the "War . . . 241 

Lopez and Walker — The passing of two great 
men — ^The underground railroad — Dred Scott 
and John Brown — The first Atlantic cable. 

XVII. The Great War 260 

The war in a nutshell — Lincoln in the war — 
Siege of Vicksburg. 

XVIII. Anecdotes and Stories of the War . 275 

Friendly enemies — The little drummer boy — 
Self sacrifice and devotion — General Polk in a 
predicament — The President's letter to Mrs. 
Bixby. 

XIX. Aftermath of the War 290 

Andrew Johnson — A President on trial — Maxi- 
milian in Mexico — The Alabama Claims. 

XX. The New Nation 310 

Horace Greeley — The great railroad strike of 
1877 — The Pacific coast and the Chinese — Custer 
and the Battle of the Little Big Horn. 

XXI. Our Island Possessions 332 

The Hawaiian Islands — The Spanish War — ^The 
Philippine Islands — How the Filipinos live — 
Porto Rico — The Islands of Samoa. 

XXII. The Panama Canal 353 

Beginning at Panama — The sanitary victory — 
Magnitude of the work. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACINO 
PAOB 



Columbus Before Isabella .... Frontispiece 

The Landing of the Pilgrims 42 

Puritans Going to Church 52 

The Boston Tea Party 72 

The Battle of Lexington 78 

The Taking of Fort Ticonderoga, New York, 1775 . . 92 

The Death of Captain Lawrence, on the Chesapeake, 1813 126 

Perry's Victory on Lake Erie 132 

Mexican News 192 

The Last Moments of John Brown 254 

The Battle of Gettysburg 260 

The Monitor and the Merrimac, 1862 268 

The Siege of Vicksburg 274 

The Alabama and the Kearsage 308 

The Battle of Manila Bay 340 

Topographical Map of the Panama Canal .... 360 



A CHILD'S GUIDE TO 
AMERICAN HISTORY 



A CHILD'S GUIDE TO 
AMERICAN HISTORY 



CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTORY 

DID you ever see a coral island? If not, you 
have heard or read of these strange islands 
that rise out of the sea. The coral is a tiny creature 
of the sea, with a very low form of life and with 
no power of movement from one place to another. 
It feeds on what is brought it by the waves. With 
myriads of its kind, probably far beneath the sur- 
face, it lives its little life and dies. Its porous body, 
having gathered lime from the water, becomes hard 
like stone, and to this is attached the next genera- 
tion of coral, and so on and on. The growth con- 
tinues for perhaps hundreds of years, when at last 
it rises to the surface of the water. Then come the 
birds and the waves with soil and seed, and at length 
we have a beautiful island with trees and flowers, 
and even the homes of men — all built on the petrified 
bodies of the tiny coral of the sea. 

History is like a coral growth. Every generation 
of men is built up on the achievements of the pre- 
ceding. The civilization of the present rests entirely 
on the past. There are few things indeed that we 

11 



A Guide to American History 

use in our everyday life for which we are not in- 
debted to the past. If you sit down to write a letter, 
the pen you use, the chair on which you sit, and the 
clothes you wear are the product of machinery that 
took centuries to develop, and the alphabet you use 
is the inheritance of thousands of years. If you 
read a poem or study science, you are simply gath- 
ering up the wisdom of the past. The poem may 
have been v\rritten yesterday, but the poet himself is 
a product of the past. He has doubtless read the 
writings of Homer and of David, of Virgil, of 
Dante and of Shakespeare, and of many others, 
and each has played a part in making the poem 
what it is. 

Man's mental powers have not grown or developed 
in historic times. We are no greater than were our 
ancestors. We live more comfortably than they only 
because we have added to what they bequeathed us. 
Each generation adds a little to what it receives from 
the past, and thus the conditions of the present rest 
on the accumulated inheritance from the ages. Were 
it possible to erase or destroy the past, man would 
be reduced to the lowest state of savagery, to the 
condition of the lower animals — without tools, or 
clothing, or language, or traditions. 

A record of the past we call History. But history 
is more than a record of the past; it is a study of 
humanity, the greatest of all studies, and is second 
only to the study of the human life in our own times, 
in which we are all unconsciously engaged every 
day. 

12 



Introductory 

No one can pretend to be educated who is not to 
some extent a student of history. 

The most interesting of all history to you and to 
me is the history of our own great land. It is the 
story of the life of our ancestors and of the growth 
of institutions which we enjoy. 

The history of America is one of absorbing inter- 
est to all. Here had lived for unknown ages the 
wild man of the forest and of the plains. He dwelt 
in contentment with his family and his tribe amid 
the rude surroundings of his home. He chased the 
deer and the buffalo and fought with his enemy in 
battle. He knew nothing of the civilized life of 
lands that were far away. 

At length the white man came from across the seas 
and began to clear away the forest and to build 
homes. The Indians were crowded toward the west 
and cities rose where the forest had waved above their 
wigwams. For nearly two hundred years the white 
man's colonies grew and strengthened, when they 
rose against the mother land, and, after a long and 
weary war, won their independence and founded a 
nation. The new nation became the home of the 
oppressed from every land. It increased rapidly in 
population, in wealth, and in extent of territory, 
and, though still in its youth, it is now one of the 
greatest nations of the world. What American is 
not proud of our vast country ? and who can be con- 
tent without a good knowledge of its history ? 

In this book I shall aim to tell you something 
about great events and leading characters. I shall 

13 



A Guide to American History 

also give many incidents and adventures which are 
not found in the school histories, though by so doing 
I must leave out much that is easily found in other 
books. My purpose in giving considerable space to 
the adventures, daring deeds, and mode of life of the 
pioneers is not merely to make the narrative more 
attractive to the reader, but to reproduce the spirit 
of those times and to emphasize the debt we owe to 
those early settlers. 

The object of the book is to awaken in the reader 
a greater love of the history of our country, to foster 
a keener desire to know the sources and the growth 
of our civilization, to stimulate to more extensive 
reading of the story of our great land — all of which 
tend to a more wholesome growth of good citizenship. 



14 



CHAPTEK II 
HOW EUROPE FOUND AMERICA 

YOU can pick up a morning newspaper and read 
about what happened the day before on the 
opposite side of the earth. 

In view of this fact, it seems strange that a little 
more than four hundred years ago half the land area 
of the globe was unknown to the inhabitants of the 
other half. For many centuries most people had be- 
lieved that the earth was flat, that it was in the cen- 
ter of the universe, and that the sun and moon made a 
revolution around it every day — just as they seem 
to do. 

When you look up the sky seems higher directly 
above you than at the horizon, and it was probably 
this appearance that led the people of Europe to be- 
lieve that Europe was the center of all things. They 
also thought that they themselves were the most im- 
portant people in the world. But then, perhaps, every 
people think themselves a little better than those of 
any other nation. 

It was not until after the discovery of America 
that Copernicus taught the world that the sun is in 
the center of a great system, known as the Solar 
System, and that the earth is one of the planets that 

15 



A Guide to American History 

revolve about the sun. But for many centuries before 
the time of Copernicus educated people in Europe 
believed the earth to be a sphere ; and yet there were 
some puzzling questions. How could anybody live 
on the opposite side of the world, where they would 
have to walk with their heads downward? It was 
believed that since the earth is round, like an apple 
or an orange, it must slope downward in all direc- 
tions, and if a ship went too far down the slope it 
would never be able to get back. For this reason 
mariners were careful not to sail too far from 
home. 

Copernicus lived more than two hundred years 
before the time of Isaac IN^ewton, who discovered the 
law of gravity by which the earth holds all loose 
bodies on its surface and keeps them from falling 
away from it. It was believed that men could not 
live on the sides or bottom of the earth, but only on 
top. Then there were other strange beliefs in those 
days. One was that around the middle of the earth 
there was a torrid belt so hot that the seas boiled 
with fury and that no man or animal could live 
there. Another was that there was a gigantic bird 
so powerful that it could seize a ship in its talons 
and fly away with it into the air. 

For hundreds of years these wild fancies were 
believed by vast numbers of people ; but most of them 
were given up before America was discovered. By 
this time most people had come to believe that the 
earth was round, and it began to dawn on the minds 
of some that one might reach the eastern coast of 

16 



How Europe Eound America 

Asia by sailing westward. To do this became the 
more desirable when, in 1453, the terrible Turk cap- 
tured Constantinople and refused to permit the Eu- 
ropean traders to pass by that route to Asia, as they 
had been doing. But who would venture on such a 
dangerous journey across the Sea of Darkness, as 
the Atlantic was called? Its dark waves rolled on 
and on forever. Where was the man who would risk 
his life in trying to cross it? 

Columbus 

There was only one such man, and his name was 
Christopher Columbus. He was bom in the beauti- 
ful Italian city of Genoa, on the northern shore of 
the Mediterranean. Many a time, when a boy, he 
would sit on the green banks and watch the ships 
come and go. His eyes would follow the white sails 
dancing before the wind as the vessels plowed through 
the sparkling water, and Columbus resolved that he 
would become a sailor when he grew to be a man. 

But he did not wait till he was a man. At the 
age of fourteen he launched out on the vocation of 
his life and became a sailor. 

By the time he reached manhood he was a skillful 
mariner. Sometimes he engaged in sea fights. On 
one occasion he commanded a vessel which engaged 
in a death duel with another. After they had fought 
for some hours both vessels took fire, and Columbus 
saved his life by leaping into the water and swim- 
ming to shore, six miles away. 

17 



A Guide to American History 

The Mediterranean must have seemed too small 
for Columbus, for he left his home and went to 
Portugal, and later to Spain. He studied geography 
and navigation, and made voyages down the coast of 
Africa. At one time he sailed far into the north, 
to the coast of Iceland. Here he may or may not 
have heard about Lief Ericson, who, ^ve hundred 
years before, had found a land which he called Vin- 
land far across the western seas. 

Columbus thought and thought about finding Asia 
by sailing across the Atlantic to the west. He fully 
believed that it was possible to do so, and was willing 
to risk his life in making the attempt. But such a 
great undertaking required money and ships and 
men, and Columbus did not have them. He applied 
to the King of Portugal for aid, but the king thought 
him a dreamer, and refused to help him. He then 
went to Spain and laid his plans before the king and 
queen, Ferdinand and Isabella. They put him off 
for several years, then finally decided to help him in 
making the attempt. Whether they did this only to 
get rid of him, or whether they believed that he might 
make some important discoveries, it is difficult to say. 

The Voyage 

One bright morning, at the break of day, in August, 
1492, three small vessels launched out upon the sea 
from the port of Palos, Spain. The commander of 
this tiny fleet was Christopher Columbus. He and 
his crew were starting out on one of the strangest 

18 



How Europe Found America 

voyages ever made. They knew not where they were 
going. They supposed the earth to be round, but did 
not know, and in these three frail vessels they were 
starting out to cross a vast sea that no one else, as 
far as they knew, had ever crossed. No wonder they 
broke into sobs and wails as their friends waved them 
good-by from the receding shore. It was generally 
believed that they were setting out on a journey from 
which none would return. 

For many weeks they glided through the waves 
toward the west. The weather was fine, but the men, 
one hundred and twenty in all, were filled with terror 
and superstitious fears. The vast expanse of water 
seemed boundless and fathomless. Every day they 
expected something dreadful to happen. Ear from 
friends and home, they seemed to be in another 
world. There was but one undaunted soul, and that 
was Columbus. 

At length the men determined to turn back, but 
Columbus would listen to nothing of the kind. He 
promised them great riches if they should succeed. 
He threatened to put the leaders in chains if they 
did not obey him. Again and again they thought 
they sighted land, but it proved to be only banks of 
clouds lying low on the horizon. 

This increased their fears. They felt that they 
were in a world of enchantment, and that the signs 
of land were delusions alluring them to destruction. 

But at last, nearly ten weeks after they had left 
Palos, the signs of land were unmistakable — birds in 
the air that never reach midocean, a branch of thorn 

19 



A Guide to American History 

with berries on it, and floating weeds that grow only 
on land. 

On the night of October 11th, Columbus, watching 
from the deck of his ship, saw a flickering light far 
away on the horizon. It moved here and there, and 
seemed like a torch carried by a man. 'Not an eye 
was closed in sleep that night on the little vessels. 
Every eye was strained in the outlook for land, and 
at daybreak, behold ! there lay a verdant shore about 
six miles away. We can only imagine the joy of the 
sailors at the sight of land after their dreary voyage 
over the dark, deep sea. 

Columbus and a few of his officers went ashore 
and took possession of the new lands in the name of 
the King and Queen of Spain. He shed tears of 
emotion, returned thanks to God for his success, and 
bowed down and kissed the ground. 

As the Spaniards came ashore they saw human 
beings gazing in silent wonder. Columbus believed 
that he had reached the East Indies, and he called 
the natives Indians, a name which was later ap- 
plied to all the native inhabitants of the New World. 
The Indians, on seeing the Spaniards landing, ran 
away and hid themselves; but presently came forth 
again and stood wondering at their strange visi- 
tors. 

The place of landing was an island in the West 
Indies, which Columbus called San Salvador, but 
which is now called Watling's Island. The Span- 
iards cruised about for several weeks and discovered 
many islands, among them the great island of Cuba. 

20 



How Europe Found America 

But Columbus was greatly puzzled. He thought he 
had reached the coast of China or of Japan. He had 
heard of the wonderful rivers and towered cities of 
China, but here he found none of these. He found 
waving forests and blooming flowers and naked sav- 
ages. He bore vdth him a letter of greeting from 
the King and Queen of Spain to the Emperor of 
China. But no emperor could he find. Poor Colum- 
bus ! Little did he dream that China was ten thou- 
sand miles away, and that between him and that 
country a vast ocean rolled, far greater than the one 
that he had crossed. 

When Columbus returned to Spain he was received 
by the king and queen with great honor. Thousands 
of people crowded the streets of the cities to see the 
great discoverer pass by. In the following years Co- 
lumbus made three more voyages to the lands he had 
discovered. On the last of these voyages he discov- 
ered the mainland of South America, at the mouth 
of the Orinoco River. Still thinking he was in Asia, 
Columbus believed this to be one of the great rivers 
mentioned in the Bible as flowing from the Garden 
of Eden. 

Many others were soon making voyages to the new 
lands, and one day, when some one said that it was 
not such a great thing to have made the discovery, 
it is said that Columbus took an egg and asked who 
could make it stand on end. Several tried and failed. 
He then took the egg and cracked the shell, and stood 
it on end. 

" It is quite easy," he said, *^ when you know how; 

21 



A Guide to American History 

and so it is easy to make discoveries after I have 
shown the way." 

Columbus died in 1506, and to the day of his 
death he never knew that it was not the coast of Asia, 
but a vast new continent which he had discovered. 

The 'New World should have been called by the 
name of Columbus, but another was to receive this 
honor. Americus Vespucius was one of the many 
who made voyages across the Atlantic. He cruised 
along the coast of South America, and wrote a little 
book about it. It was believed that Americus had 
discovered a continent, while Columbus had discov- 
ered only a few islands, and the New World was 
called America, 



22 



CHAPTEK III 

EXPLORING THE NEW WORLD 

EUEOPE liad found America, a vast land of un- 
known bounds. But of what use could America 
be if unoccupied by civilized man ? Certainly of no 
more use than coal or iron before it is brought out of 
the earth by the miner. 

First comes the discoverer ; then the explorer. An 
explorer is one who traverses a new country and finds 
out what he can about it. Within half a century 
after Columbus had made his great discovery a great 
many explorers came to America. They traversed 
vast regions in North and South America. 

Some of the explorers came to hunt for gold ; some 
came for the love of adventure; others to win new 
territory for their native land, and still others to con- 
vert the Indians to Christianity. The explorers were 
Spanish and Portuguese and French and English, 
though at first there were very few English. I sup- 
pose most of them thought more about adventure than 
anything else. Boys enjoy sport that has in it an 
element of danger, such as coasting on a steep hill, 
riding an untamed colt, playing football and the like. 
And men are much like boys. They like dangerous 
sport, and for those who enjoyed such sport here was 

23 



A Guide to American History 

a great opportunity. The explorers had to encounter 
wild Indians and wild animals, to climb rugged 
mountains and to wade through vast swamps. A 
great many of them never returned to their homes; 
they found a grave in the wilderness. Some of them 
made splendid discoveries, for which they will ever 
be remembered. 

You have no doubt heard about Balboa, who dis- 
covered the Pacific Ocean, which he called the South 
Sea, and of Magellan, who was the first to sail around 
the world. But we shall give the rest of this chapter 
to two or three other famous explorers. 

Ponce de Leon 

The first of these is the story of Ponce de Leon 
(pronounced P6n-tha-da-La-on). His first name was 
Juan or John, but it is seldom used. 

Ponce de Leon was a famous cavalier in the Span- 
ish wars against the Moors, before Columbus discov- 
ered America. He was chivalric and brave, and 
loved the din and danger of the battle field. When 
Columbus came to America on his second voyage 
Ponce came with him. About fifteen years later he 
was made governor of Porto Pico. You will remem- 
ber that Porto Pico belonged to Spain until our war 
with that country in 1898, when it became the 
property of the United States. 

While Ponce was in Porto Pico he heard a 
strange story that somewhere in the Bahama Islands 
there was a fountain of youth, a gushing spring of 

24 



Exploring the "New World 

sparkling water which would restore youth to the 
aged who bathed in it. Ponce was a sensible man in 
most respects, but he believed this story. His brow 
was becoming wrinkled and his hair silvered with 
age. What a wonderful thing it would be if he could 
find this enchanting spring that would bring back 
the blithe step and the golden locks of boyhood ! As 
the story went, this fountain was surrounded by 
magnificent trees bearing golden fruit which was 
gathered by beautiful maidens. The story reminds 
one of the Garden of Hesperides believed in by the 
ancients. 

In the spring of 1513 Ponce de Leon started out 
to find the magic fountain. He sailed among the 
Bahamas, and bathed in the waters of every fountain 
he found; but youth did not return. At length he 
left the islands and came to a land of splendid trees 
and blooming flowers. The air was laden with per- 
fume. He named the place Florida, and it still bears 
that name as one of the States of our Union. Here 
for many days he searched for the magic spring, but 
he searched in vain. He met with an old Indian 
woman who was so bowed and wrinkled that she 
seemed to be a hundred years old. I fancy that 
Ponce thought that if there were a fountain of youth 
in that country she had never made use of it. He 
gave up the search and returned to Porto Rico. 

Soon after this Ponce de Leon set sail for Spain. 
He told King Ferdinand that he had discovered a 
beautiful island covered with flowers, and the king 
made him governor of " the Island of Florida," for 

25 



A Guide to American History 

lie believed it to be an island. A few years later 
Ponce made another voyage to Florida, and in a fight 
with the Indians he received a mortal wound. He 
was carried to Cuba, where he soon died, and thus 
ended the career of the one who made a pathetic 
search for the fountain of youth and could not find it. 

Ferdiitand De Soto 

Our next story is about Ferdinand De Soto, the 
man who discovered by accident the great river that 
divides the United States in the middle, and thus he 
won more fame in American history than he de- 
served. 

De Soto, like Ponce de Leon, had been trained in 
all the chivalry of Spain. He was a splendid rider 
and swordsman. He loved adventure, and had come 
to America, like many a Spanish youth, because he 
loved adventure and to search for gold. With Pizarro 
he aided in the conquest of Peru, and won a large 
fortune as his share of the spoils. But he spent his 
money with a lavish hand on his return to Spain, 
and soon saw that he must replenish his fortune. His 
thoughts turned again to America. He obtained per- 
mission of the king to conquer Florida, and he set 
out, thinking that gold could be found there as it had 
been found in Peru. 

It was in the spring of 1539 that De Soto, with 
an army of nearly six hundred men, approached the 
coast of Florida. As the ships drew near the flowery 
land the men shouted and sang for joy. Here was 

26 



Exploring the !N^ew World 

the land that seemed to them a paradise, abloom with 
perpetual spring. And they believed also that it must 
be a land of gold, and that they would soon return 
to Spain laden with riches. But their dream was 
rudely dispelled when, on the morning after they 
landed, they were awakened by a shower of arrows 
from a horde of Indian warriors. Thus began the 
fateful journey of De Soto and his men in the wil- 
derness, a journey from which many of that gay com- 
pany were destined never to return. 

For some months the Spaniards marched north- 
ward through grand forests of oak and pine, through 
prairies and dismal swamps. They came to many 
deserted Indian villages, the Indians having fled into 
the forest at the approach of the Spaniards. When 
the Spaniards found Indians and made known the 
object of their search, the Indians usually informed 
them that gold could be found farther on — a trick to 
get rid of the Spaniards that usually was successful. 

The Indian Queen 

After many months of weary marching, De Soto 
heard that far to the north there was a rich and 
powerful Indian nation called Cofachiqui that was 
ruled over by a queen, a beautiful girl of eighteen 
years. De Soto determined to direct his way thither. 
After a long march of several weeks they encamped 
on the bank of a river. It is now supposed that this 
was the Savannah River, and that this spot was Sil- 
ver Bluff, in Barnwell County, South Carolina. 

27 



A Guide to American History 

From the spot where the Spaniards had pitched 
their tents for the night thej presently heard the 
barking of dogs and the shouts of playing children 
on the opposite bank of the river. Eagerly they 
awaited the morning, and at dawn they beheld an 
Indian village with many of the inhabitants, men, 
women, and children, standing on the bank gazing 
at their strange visitors. The horses, the bright ar- 
mor, and the glittering swords of the Spaniards 
seemed very wonderful to the red children of the 
forest, as they had never seen such things before. 

This was the land of Cofachiqui, the nation 
governed by the beautiful queen, and she was stand- 
ing with her people, gazing in silent wonder at the 
Spaniards. At length she sent several of her war- 
riors in a canoe across the river. As they ap- 
proached they called out : " Do you come for peace 
or war ? " 

De Soto had with him an interpreter, a Spaniard 
who could speak the Indian language, and he an- 
swered : 

" We come for peace. We need food, and beg your 
assistance." 

De Soto told the men that he was anxious to meet 
their queen, and they rowed back and made this fact 
known to her. Presently four warriors approached 
the water's edge bearing a kind of hammock called a 
palanquin (pal-an-keen), and from it stepped the 
queen, who was now rowed across the river. 

As she came up to De Soto he was much impressed 
by her quiet dignity, her rich robes, and her great 

28 



Exploring the New World 

beauty. Through his interpreter he conversed with 
her for some time. As a token of friendship she 
threw around his neck a string of costly pearls, and 
he gave her a gold ring set with a ruby. She offered 
him the use of half the houses in the village if he and 
his army chose to stay for a time, and De Soto ac- 
cepted the kind offer. 

It was not long until the Spaniards made known 
the object of their journey, and the queen informed 
them that there was a great deal of gold in her terri- 
tories, and not far from the village. She sent men 
to bring specimens. Spanish hopes now rose to the 
highest pitch. The men decided to load themselves 
with the precious metal and return to Spain. But 
their dream was soon dispelled, for the specimens 
proved to be a worthless alloy of copper, and the 
Spaniards again in sorrow turned their eyes to the 
wilderness. 

On leaving the land of Cofachiqui, De Soto com- 
pelled the young queen to accompany him to the bor- 
ders of her territory. This was his custom whenever 
he could get possession of a chief, and his object was 
to prevent attacks, for he knew that an Indian tribe 
would not attack him while he held their ruler. In 
this instance it seemed cruel to do so, after the queen 
had been so kind to him. But the queen was treated 
with the highest respect. She was carried along in 
a palanquin by her own warriors, and several of her 
maids walked by her side. After they had marched 
a day or two this dusky maid of the forest proved 
herself a true Indian, as well as a queen. She sud- 

29 



A Guide to American History 

denlj leaped from her seat, darted into the forest 
with the fleetness of a deer, and was soon lost to view. 
The Spaniards searched for her, but they never saw 
nor heard of her again. She probably returned to 
her own people on the banks of the Savannah River. 



The Mississippi 

The wandering in the wilderness by De Soto and 
his army continued for more than three years. Many 
a time they met hostile Indians and fought fierce bat- 
tles. In each battle they lost a few of their number, 
and the army gradually decreased. One of these 
battles proved a dreadful blow to the Spaniards. It 
was the battle of Mobile in southern Alabama. This 
was one of the greatest battles fought between the 
white and red races. The Spaniards killed thousands 
of Indians in this battle and destroyed one of the 
most powerful tribes in the South; but their own 
loss was very heavy. Many of the men and horses 
were killed and nearly all the survivors were 
wounded. All their baggage, food, and medicine 
were destroyed. 

After this destructive battle De Soto never seemed 
to be himself. His jovial spirits were gone. Many 
of his men wanted to return to civilization, but he 
refused to listen to such proposals. He seemed to 
prefer to die in the wilderness rather than to return 
without the gold he sought. They met many friendly 
Indians. With one tribe they remained several 
weeks, and when about to depart one of the Span- 

30 



Exploring the New World 

iards, who had fallen in love with the chief's daugh- 
ter, wished to remain with the Indians. He did so, 
and married the daughter. 

Two years had passed. De Soto's army became 
smaller and smaller. The bright uniforms with 
which the men had started were reduced to tatters, 
and at length they had to clothe themselves in skins 
of wild animals. Aimlessly they wandered from 
place to place, knowing and caring but little whither 
they went. 

In the spring of 1541 they first came in sight of 
the Mississippi River. It was probably at a point 
near the boundary between the present States of Ten- 
nessee and Mississippi. The channel was a mile and 
a half in width, and great quantities of driftwood, 
logs, and whole trees were floating on its bosom. For 
countless ages the great river had rolled, unknown 
before to civilized man. 

It was this discovery that gave De Soto a name in 
American history ; but he did not appreciate his find. 
He regarded the river as an obstacle to his march 
rather than an important discovery. The men built 
barges and, crossing the river, made a detour into 
what is now Arkansas and Missouri. This detour 
required a year — a year of hardship and disaster — 
and they returned to the Mississippi in the spring of 
1542. At this time De Soto was attacked by a fever, 
and he soon saw that he must die. The end came on 
May 21st, and his burial place was the great river 
with which his name has ever been linked. In a 
casket made of a hollow oaken log the body was laid, 

31 



A Guide to American History 

and at midnight it was rowed to the middle of the 
river and reverently lowered into the water. 

More than half the army had perished. The sur- 
vivors floated down the Mississippi to the gulf and 
reached a port in Mexico, and thus ended the most 
notable exploring expedition in American history. 

La Salle and Louisiana 

Our third and last story of the explorers is about 
a Frenchman, who lived more than a hundred years 
after the time of De Soto. He was Robert Cavalier 
de La Salle (Lah Sal), and his name is linked with 
the Mississippi Eiver more than any other except 
that of De Soto. 

You would probably think that a hundred years 
was long enough time to have explored all the terri- 
tory in E^orth and South America, but the business 
of exploring an unknown continent is too great to be 
done in a day, or even in a century. In fact, there 
are parts of Alaska, the Hudson Bay country, and 
South America that are not known to this day. There 
are Indian tribes that have never yet seen or heard 
of white men. One hundred and fifty years after the 
time of Columbus no man had much idea of the size 
of JN'orth America. Here is a story of La Salle that 
shows how little they knew in his time. In 1669 — 
one hundred and seventy-seven years after Columbus 
had discovered America — La Salle floated down the 
Ohio River, for what purpose do you suppose ? For 
the purpose of searching for the Pacific Ocean. 

32 






Exploring the !N^ew World 

Every schoolboy or schoolgirl who has studied geog- 
raphy now knows that the Ohio does not empty into 
the Pacific; but La Salle did not know this, and he 
went down as far as the Ealls of the Ohio, where 
Louisville now stands, in the hope of finding the 
Pacific. 

Ten years later we find La Salle in Canada, among 
the Great Lakes, preparing for a greater journey. 
He was one of the many Frenchmen who had come 
to America to explore new lands for the French king, 
or to preach the Gospel to the Indians. Xo hardship 
was too great for these daring men. They swam icy 
rivers, endured cold and hunger, and lived on almost 
nauseous food in their perilous journeys through the 
wilderness. The Indians if well treated were usu- 
ally friendly, sometimes too friendly for tlie comfort 
of their guests. 

One Frenchman describes a dinner he had with the 
Indians. His host meant to be very kind and polite. 
He fed the Frenchman with a spoon — meal boiled in 
grease. The second course was fish, and the host 
picked the bones from it, cooled it by blowing, and 
then rolled it up in mouthfuls and tucked them into 
his guest's mouth with his fingers. He was about to 
serve the next course, consisting of boiled dog, in the 
same way, but from some cause the Frenchman had 
lost his appetite. 

We return to our story of La Salle. He was a 
man of heroic mold, and no man in the history of 
America has shown a more dauntless courage, a more 
unyielding determination. We have seen that he 

33 



A Guide to American History 

went down the Ohio River in the hope of finding the 
Pacific Ocean. On his return to Canada he heard 
from the Indians and French explorers that there 
was a greater river far west of the lake region which 
flowed southward. He came to believe that this 
great river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico. It now 
dawned on the mind of La Salle that the great work 
of his life should be to sail down this majestic river 
and take possession of its vast basin in the name of 
France. 

He went to France and secured from the king per- 
mission to carry out his project. But when he re- 
turned to Canada he found that he had bitter enemies, 
who attempted to thwart him at every turn. He col- 
lected supplies for his long journey, and his enemies 
destroyed them. They sunk his boat in Lake Erie; 
they stirred up the Indians against him; twice they 
poisoned him, but he recovered. Four or ^Ye times 
La Salle made the journey on foot between the Il- 
linois Eiver and Montreal, in preparing for his 
greater journey. After three or four years of in- 
credible toil and discouragements he started do^vn the 
Mississippi with a few companions. 

For many weeks they floated with the current. 
Sometimes for days they gazed upon the silent banks 
and saw no human being. Again they saw natives 
on shore staring in speechless wonder upon these men 
of another race of which they had never heard. La 
Salle on several occasions stopped at Indian villages, 
made friends of the Indians, and secured food. 

It was in April, 1682, after a long and lonely 

34 



Exploring the New World 

journey, that La Salle reached the mouth of the river. 
He gave the great valley through which it flowed the 
name of Louisiana, in honor of the French king, 
Louis Xiy, and took possession in the name of 
France. 

The dream of this heroic explorer was to build up 
a mighty French empire in the Mississippi Valley. 
Some years later he founded a colony on the gulf 
coast, but the colony perished, and La Salle was 
killed by one of his men. And his dream of per- 
manent French dominion in America was not real- 
ized, but the name of La Salle will ever fill a large 
place in the pioneer history of America. 



35 



CHAPTER IV 

THE FIRST SETTLERS 

AFTER the discoverer and the explorer comes the 
^ settler ; that is, the colonist who makes his home 
in the new country. Some think the discoverer and 
the explorer have a harder task than the colonist, but 
I am not sure of that. 

The discoverer and the explorer, it is true, suffer 
great hardships and encounter great perils; but if 
they survive, they return to their homes and receive 
the praise and honor of their countrymen. But the 
settler, who is usually poor, migrates to a new coun- 
try and does not expect to return to the home of his 
childhood and the friends he leaves behind. He does 
not expect to win fame. He knows that there are 
years of toil before him ere he can hope for the ordi- 
nary comforts of life. There are perils of the forest 
— the wild animal and the hostile Indian. And 
disease is far more prevalent in a new, unsettled 
country than in an old one. 

But even to move to a settled country across 
three thousand miles of sea requires a good deal 
of courage. There are a great many immigrants 
from Europe coming to our country every year. If 
you could spend a day at Ellis Island, in 'New York, 

36 



The First Settlers 

you would probably see thousands of these people 
landing from the ships. Most of them look very 
poor; their clothing is of the coarsest material, and 
their baggage is tied up in bundles. We are apt to 
look down on these people, but I do not think we 
should. The great majority of them are good people, 
honest and industrious, and they have done a brave 
thing in leaving their homes and coming so far in 
the hope of doing better for themselves and their 
children than they could do in the old country. Then 
we must remember that we are all descendants of 
immigrants, and perhaps our ancestors were as poor 
and as unattractive as these people seem to us. 

We must now get back to our early settlers, and 
we shall begin with 

The Father of the English Colonies 

It is a strange fact that the man who is known as 
the father of the English colonies in America never 
succeeded in planting a permanent colony. His 
name was Walter Raleigh (Raw ley). He lived in 
the time of Queen Elizabeth, who was sometimes 
called ^' good Queen Bess.'' The queen was quite 
fond of Walter Raleigh, and showed him many 
favors. 

Their friendship came about in this way : One day 
when the queen was crossing a muddy street Raleigh 
threw his cloak in the mud for her to step on, so that 
she would not soil her shoes. She was much pleased 
at his gallantry, though she had never seen him be- 

37 



A Guide to American History 

fore. When she reached her palace she sent for " the 
young man with a muddy cloak.'' He was soon 
found and brought into her presence — and a fine- 
looking young man he was. The queen was so 
pleased with him that she made him one of her court- 
iers, a member of her household. Some time after 
this she knighted him, as the English say; that is, 
she made him a Sir, and ever afterwards he was 
known as Sir Walter Ealeigh. 

Sir Walter was not contented living at the queen's 
court doing nothing all his life. He wanted to do 
something useful for his country, and his mind 
turned to colony planting in America. 

England claimed as her own the whole of !N^orth 
America because John Cabot had sailed from Eng- 
land in 1497 and discovered it — ^ve years after Co- 
lumbus had made his first great voyage. Columbus 
had discovered only islands, while Cabot had discov- 
ered the continent. England therefore claimed the 
continent by right of discovery. 

Now Raleigh thought that North America would 
be just the place to found colonies, and he hoped to 
see a great new English nation built up in America. 
He reminds us of La Salle, who, as we have seen, 
spent his life trying to found a Erench nation in 
America. 

The Lost Colony 

Sir Walter Raleigh made five separate attempts to 
found a permanent colony on the Atlantic coast of 
North America, but not one of them became a per- 

38 



The First Settlers 

manent settlement. We shall notice only one of 
these settlements. It is known as " the lost colony.'^ 

It was in the year 1587 that Raleigh sent a colony 
of one hundred and fifty settlers. Seventeen of them 
were women. The governor of the colony was John 
White, and his daughter and her husband, Mr. Dare, 
were among the colonists. The name of the country 
was Virginia, which was very much larger than the 
State of Virginia is now. The part of Virginia to 
which they went is now North Carolina. 

The colonists bade their friends a fond good-by as 
they sailed away from the coast of England. For 
about two months they were on the sea — from May 
to July, 1587. We can imagine what joy filled their 
hearts when they came in sight of land. They landed 
on Eoanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina. 

As they came to the shore they were delighted with 
the singing birds and the fragrance of flowers and 
the sweet-scented magnolia trees. A few weeks later 
a girl baby was born to Mrs. Dare, the daughter of 
Governor White. They named her Virginia, after 
the country, and thus Virginia Dare was the first 
English child born on the soil of the United States. 
What became of her and the rest of the settlers no- 
body ever knew, as we shall see. Governor White 
soon sailed back to England to bring more supplies. 
But when he reached England he found that war ex- 
isted between that country and Spain, and his return 
was long delayed. 

It was the next year, 1588, that the King of Spain 
sent a great fleet, known as the Armada, to conquer 

39 



A Guide to American History 

England. Tlie English met the Armada with true 
courage. They burned some of the Spanish ships, 
sunk some of them, and drove the rest away. 

The war with Spain made it impossible for Sir 
Walter Raleigh to send supplies to his colony on 
Roanoke Island until three years after Governor 
White had returned, and at last when the governor 
crossed the ocean again he found Roanoke Island 
deserted. There stood the cabins which he had 
helped to build, but they were empty, and silence 
reigned all around. 

Where were his little grandchild, Virginia Dare, 
and her mother and the rest of the colony ? l^obody 
could tell. It was not believed that they were mur- 
dered by the Indians, as no bodies or bones were 
found. It was thought that they probably gave up 
hope of their friends returning, and went to the 
Indians for food and remained among them. In the 
years following, several searching parties were sent 
to hunt for these settlers, but without success, and 
this colony is knovni in history as " the lost colony 
of Roanoke.'^ 



40 



CHAPTEE V 

THE PERMANENT COLONIES 

AS we have noticed, it is a very difficult thing to 
colonize a new country. Not only did our early 
settlers have to encounter wild animals and wild 
men, they had also the heavy task before them of 
clearing away the forests and building homes. They 
found no well-built cities with paved streets and elec- 
tric lights, no employers ready to give them a salary 
for their services. They found not a house nor a 
barn, not a fence nor a bridge. All these things they 
had to make for themselves. 'No wonder that many 
of the colonies failed. We can never be too grateful 
to our ancestors who made America a fit place to 
live in. 

The first permanent colony was planted just twenty 
years after the lost colony had settled on Roanoke 
Island. It was called the Virginia colony. It built 
the village of Jamestown on the James River, both 
town and river being given the name of the King of 
England, who was James I. This was in 1607, and 
three hundred years afterwards, in 190Y, an exposi- 
tion was held at the place to commemorate the found- 
ing of the first permanent English colony. 

But even this colony came very near not being a 
permanent one. The settlers found life in the wil- 

41 



A Guide to American History 

derness very hard. At times they were at the point 
of starvation. Several hundred people had settled 
about Jamestown, but a great many died of disease 
and for want of food, and no doubt the colony would 
have perished but for the energy of one brave man, 
John Smith. You have no doubt heard the story of 
John Smith and Pocahontas, the Indian girl. 

After Smith returned to England affairs grew 
worse, and more than four hundred of the colonists 
died in one winter. There were but sixty left, and 
these determined to return to England in four little 
boats which they had. Sadly they floated down the 
river intending to embark on the sea next morning. 
But behold ! next morning there were three ships 
sweeping up the bay. It was Lord Delaware coming 
with more colonists and a year's supply of food. He 
took the disheartened Virginians back with him to 
Jamestown, and they began anew ; and Virginia, the 
firstborn of the United States, was born again. 

Never after this did the people of Virginia think 
of abandoning their colony. They built houses and 
cleared farms. The woodman's ax rang out among 
the trees, and the shouts and laughter of children 
told of happy homes. As the years passed Virginia 
grew into a great colony and later into a great State. 

The " Mayflower " 

You have no doubt read about the May flower , the 
little ship that bore the little band of Pilgrims to 
Massachusetts in 1620. 

42 







bX) 



-1-3 



bJ3 
.1— I 



The Permanent Colonies 

The Pilgrims had left England — some of them — 
nearly twelve years before they came to America, 
and had gone to live in Holland because of religious 
persecution. They were not permitted to worship 
God in their own way in England, and on this ac- 
count they went to Holland, and later came to Amer- 
ica. They were called Pilgrims because of their 
wanderings. 

One hundred and two persons embarked in the 
Mayflower — men, women, and children. One died 
on the sea and one was born, so that there was the 
same number when they landed as when they started. 
They were all poor people. They borrowed money 
to pay their expenses across the ocean, and those who 
had nothing to pay their creditors engaged to work 
several years to discharge their debt. 

Perhaps not one of the Pilgrims expected ever 
again to see their native land, and few of them ever 
did. 

They had chosen a bad time of year for their jour- 
ney, and in consequence they had to spend a long 
winter on the bleak New England coast before they 
could raise crops for food. One day when some of 
the men went ashore to explore, the spray of the 
waves blew on them and froze until their clothes 
looked like coats of iron. They chose a place called 
Plymouth for their home, and day after day the men 
went ashore to build cabins while the women and 
children remained on the ship. 

But the saddest thing about the Plymouth colony 
was that disease attacked them, and about half of 

43 



A Guide to American History 

them died the first winter. Most of those who sur- 
vived the first dreadful winter lived to be old. One 
of them named Mary Cushman, who was a little girl 
when she came in the Mayflower , lived seventy-nine 
years after she reached America. 

For several years the Pilgrims found it very diffi- 
cult to make a living. There were plenty of game in 
the forest and fish in the sea and streams; but the 
men had never been hunters nor fishermen, and we 
can imagine that they were awkward with the gun 
and rod. They would probably have starved if some 
friendly Indians had not taught them how to raise 
corn. 

Chief among these was an Indian named Squanto. 
Several years before this some wicked traders on the 
coast had stolen Squanto, carried him across the sea 
to Spain, and sold him into slavery; he was rescued 
by an Englishman and brought back to his own coun- 
try, and he ever afterwards had great love for the 
English. When he heard of the English colony at 
Plymouth he came and offered to help the settlers in 
any way he could. He taught them many things 
about fishing, and how to raise corn. 

One of these Mayflower Pilgrims was Miles Stan- 
dish, a soldier by profession. Whenever the settlers 
needed protection from hostile Indians or others, 
Standish was the one to lead the men against the 
enemy, and an excellent protector he was. 

There is an interesting story about Miles Stan- 
dish. He fell in love with one of the young ladies 
named Priscilla, and wanted to marry her. But he 

44 



The Permanent Colonies 

was a bashful sort of a fellow, and, though he was 
not afraid of bullets and swords, he seemed afraid 
to tell Priscilla that he loved her. So he sent his 
friend, John Alden, to tell her. John went and told 
the girl how his friend Miles loved her, and wished 
to marry her. But behold ! Priscilla liked John 
himself better than Miles, and — probably you know 
how the story came out. If not, I suggest that you 
read Longfellow's poem entitled, " Miles Standish." 

It would be interesting to remain longer with the 
Pilgrims, but we must bid them adieu. The colony 
was increased from time to time by newcomers from 
England, and for seventy-one years after the landing 
of the Mayflower it remained a separate colony, 
when it was joined to the greater colony of Massa- 
chusetts. 

We should be glad to notice some of the other l^ew 
England colonies — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode 
Island, and others — but our space will not permit. 
Let us cross to the Hudson Valley and see what is 
going on there. 

E"ew York 

Of the thirteen colonies which became States at the 
time of the Revolution, all except two were founded 
by English people. These two were New York, 
founded by the Dutch, and Delaware, founded by the 
Swedes. 

New York was at first called New Netherland, 
and the City of New York was called New Amster- 
dam. They were first settled by the Dutch. Some 

45 



A Guide to American History 

people say Dutch when they mean German. The 
Dutch are the people of the Netherlands, or Holland, 
which is the largest state in the Netherlands. 

Henry Hudson had discovered the river that bears 
his name in 1609, only two years after the founding 
of the colony of Virginia. About fifteen years after 
Hudson had sailed up the river, the Dutch made a 
settlement on Manhattan Island, which is now cov- 
ered by the great City of New York. 

In the forty years of Dutch control New Amster- 
dam had four governors, often spoken of as the Four 
Dutch Governors. The last of the four, and the most 
interesting, was Peter Stuyvesant. He had been a 
soldier, and had lost a leg in battle. He was a cross 
old fellow with a will of iron, and he would not allow 
the people to have any voice in their own government. 
He threatened to hang on the highest tree anyone 
who refused to accept his decisions. 

In spite of the efforts of the crabbed old governor 
to keep the people in subjection there was a great 
deal of disorder on Manhattan Island. Almost every 
day drunken sailors and drunken Indians staggered 
along the streets of the village. Governor Stuyvesant 
would not permit anyone to trade without license 
from him ; he interfered with religious worship ; he 
quarreled with the English in New England, with 
the Swedes in Delaware, with the Indians on all 
sides, and with his own people at home. 

At length the people grew so tired of the governor's 
despotism that they petitioned the governr/ient of 
Holland to permit them to have a share in the law- 

46 



The Permanent Colonies 

making. The petition was granted, and a legislature 
was elected; but when it met, the governor sat with 
them, and the loud stamping on the floor of his 
wooden leg warned them when matters were not go- 
ing to suit him. 

Bj and bj war broke out between England and 
Holland. The English were anxious to conquer New 
Motherland and make an English colony of it, be- 
cause it separated New England from the South, and 
now came the opportunity. 

It was in 1664. A small English fleet sailed up 
New York Bay. Its commander sent a letter to 
Stuyyesant and demanded the surrender of New Am- 
sterdam, but the old Dutch governor tore the letter 
to pieces; he fretted, and fumed, and swore, and 
stamped his wooden leg harder than ever. But all 
to no purpose. His own people would not fight for 
him, and he had to give up. New Amsterdam was 
now given the name of New York, in honor of the 
Duke of York, the brother of the King of England. 

During the forty years of Dutch rule a great many 
Dutch people had settled in the Hudson Valley. They 
were a religious, good-natured people, who worked 
hard and lived in great contentment. They dwelled 
in low wooden or brick houses with sanded floors and 
high steep roofs. To avoid the loneliness of the wil- 
derness, several farmhouses were built near together, 
and on summer evenings the men, smoking long 
Dutch pipes, the women knitting or sewing, would 
sit out of doors and converse with one another while 
the children gamboled and played around. No people 

47 



A Guide to American History 

in America were more happy and contented than 
these rustic Dutch people of the Hudson Valley. 

William Penn and the Quakers 

The Quakers, a religious sect, first called them- 
selves Friends. They came to be called Quakers be- 
cause they said men should tremble and quake on 
account of their sins. 

William Penn was the son of a very prominent 
man in England, and when, as a student at Oxford, 
he joined the Quakers his father was very angry, for 
the Quakers were a poor and despised people. In the 
hope of winning William away from the new sect 
his father sent him to travel in Europe that he might 
see strange things and meet with many great people, 
but without effect. He was thrown into prison for 
preaching on the streets of London ; his father threat- 
ened to disinherit him; the king refused to receive 
him at court on account of his religion, but William 
was unmoved, and he remained a Quaker to the end 
of his days. 

William Penn determined to plant a Quaker 
colony in America. He secured a great tract of 
land, and it was named Pennsylvania (Penn's for- 
est). In 1682, the same year in which La Salle 
floated down the Mississippi, Penn made his first 
voyage to America. He had become widely known 
in England for his high character, and when it was 
discovered that he was about to found a colony in 
America many came to join the new colony. He 

48 



The Permanent Colonies 

sent the first settlers in 1681, and himself followed 
the next year in the ship Welcome, There were 
about a hundred on hoard the Welcome, and one- 
third of them died of smallpox while on the voyage. 

Soon after arriving on the banks of the Delaware, 
Penn began to lay out the city of Philadelphia, which 
soon became the largest city in America, and so con- 
tinued until after the Eevolution. In the autumn 
of the same year he met the Indians under an elm 
tree on the Delaware above the town and made with 
them his famous treaty. 

The chiefs sat around on the ground in a semi- 
circle while Penn stood near and made a speech, call- 
ing them friends and brothers. He made a pledge 
to live in peace and friendship with them. The 
chiefs were greatly pleased, they grunted their as- 
sent, and one of them declared that they would " live 
in love with William Penn and his children as long 
as the sun and moon give light.'' 

This treaty was not written, it was only spoken, 
but it remained unbroken until long after those who 
had made it had passed away. 

For many years after this when an Indian wished 
to pay the highest compliment to a white man he 
would say, " He is like William Penn." 

The Walking Purchase 

William Penn made various bargains with the 
Indians for the purchase of their lands. One of 
these is known as the Walking Purchase. The agree- 

49 



A Guide to American History 

ment was that Penn was to receive a tract of land 
extending as far from the Delaware as a man could 
walk in three days. Penn and a few friends, with 
a body of Indians, walked leisurely for a day and a 
half, covering about thirty miles. As he needed no 
more land at this time the matter was left to be fin- 
ished at some future time. 

Long after Penn's death the other day and a half 
was walked out, and in a very different spirit. The 
three fastest walkers that could be found were em- 
ployed, and each was to receive five hundred acres of 
land. One of these three was a famous hunter named 
Edward Marshall. One day the sheriff of Bucks 
County said to him: 

^^ Ed, we want three strong men to walk out the 
Indian purchase. Eive hundred acres and five 
pounds in money for each man. Will you go ? " 

" I never liked an Indian,'' answered Marshall. 
" They think no white man can hunt. Yes, I'll 
go." 

The other two walkers were Solomon Jennings 
and James Yeates. At sunrise on September 19, 
1737, the men started. A large crowd followed 
them, but the walkers soon left all behind, except a 
few Indians. They walked as fast as they could, 
crossing hills and streams. They were not allowed to 
run and jump over a brook until they had walked to 
the edge of it. 

At night they were very tired; but next morning 
they started again for the last half-day's walking. 
Two of them were too weary to finish. One, James 

50 



The Permanent Colonies 

Yeates, fell by the way, limp and helpless, and died 
three days later of sheer exhaustion. 

Marshall alone held out till noon. In the day and 
a half he had walked sixty-one miles. 

The Indians were greatly chagrined at having to 
give up more land than they had expected to do when 
they made the original bargain many years before. 
Ever after this they hated Marshall, and a band of 
them murdered his Avife and children — all but one 
boy, wKo crawled under some beehives and was saved. 

The Stoky of Geoegia 

It would be very interesting to relate the story of 
each one of the American colonies, but if we did so 
our book would become too large. It would be in- 
teresting to note the coming of John Winthrop, who 
founded the city of Boston ten years after the land- 
ing of the Pilgrims, the founding of Maryland by 
Lord Baltimore, and of various other colonies, but 
we must pass them by. 

We noticed the founding of Virginia, the first per- 
manent colony. Let us notice the last one, Georgia. 
These two colonies were founded one hundred and 
twenty-six years apart — one in 1607, the other in 
1733. 

James Oglethorpe was a great man in England. 
He was a member of Parliament for a great many 
years. 

In those days it was the custom to put a man in 
prison if he could not pay his debts. Some of the 

51 



A Guide to American History 






prisoners for debt were honest, industrious people 
who had been unfortunate. While in Parliament 
Oglethorpe conceived the idea of taking a number of 
these unfortunates to the wilderness of America and 
to found a new colony. 

Parliament voted money to aid the project, and it 
was not long until Oglethorpe with thirty-five fam- 
ilies set sail upon the sea for the coast of America. 

They landed at the mouth of the Savannah Eiver 
and founded a town to which they gave the name of 
the river. They called the colony Georgia, after the 
name of the King of England, George II. The next 
year a shipload of Protestant emigrants from Salz- 
burg, Germany, arrived in Georgia; and a little 
later a company of Scotch Highlanders came. 

Oglethorpe made a treaty with an Indian chief 
named To-mo-chi'-chi. The chief gave him a buffalo 
skin with an eagle painted on it. He told Oglethorpe 
that the buffalo denoted strength, for the English 
were as strong as a beast; and the eagle denoted 
speed, for the English were as swift as a bird. 

In 1734 Oglethorpe made a trip to England, and 
took with him the chief and his wife. When they 
reached London the Indians excited great curiosity 
among the people. They were dressed in scarlet and 
gold, and taken to visit the king in his palace. 

The Indian chief made a speech before the king 
and handed him a bunch of eagle feathers. The king 
answered in a gracious speech, and assured the chief 
that the Indians would be weU protected by the 
English. 

52 




o 

• rH 

o 
O 

a 

-1-3 

• i-H 



I 



The Permanent Colonies 

James Oglethorpe lived to be very old. He lived 
till after the War of the Revolution, and saw the 
colony he had founded become a State in our Union. 
When the war was in progress he was offered the 
position of commander of the British army against 
the colonies, but he refused. His sympathies were 
with the Americans, and when the war was over, and 
John Adams was sent as our first minister to Lon- 
don, this grand old man was the first to congratulate 
him on the winning of American independence. 



53 



CHAPTER VI 

A LONG STRUGGLE FOR A CONTINENT 

THE continent was North America, and the 
struggle was between two of the greatest na- 
tions of Europe — England and France. 

France had chosen the north, the St. Lawrence 
Valley, for her settlements; the English settled far- 
ther south along the Atlantic coast, as we have seen. 
But neither country was satisfied with these condi- 
tions; each would have liked to have the whole con- 
tinent, and would have crowded the other off alto- 
gether if it could have done so. 

During our colonial youth there were several wars 
between these two great nations. In America these 
early wars took the names of the English sovereigns 
of the times, as King William's War, Queen Anne's 
War, King George's War. 

The last and by far the greatest of the colonial 
wars was the French and Indian War, from 1755 to 
1763. To give a fuU history of that war here would 
be impossible, but we can give some things that will 
no doubt interest you and lead you to read other 
books on the subject. One of our leading historians, 
Francis Parkman, has written several interesting 
volumes on this war. 

54 



A Long Struggle for a Continent 

The Buried Plates 

The French and Indian War began with a dis- 
pute about the ownership of the Ohio Valley, the vast 
country drained by the Ohio Kiver. 

This valley of " The Beautiful River " is now the 
home of millions of people. Then it was a wild 
region covered with forests, awaiting the coming of 
the pioneer. Deer and buffalo roamed among the 
hills, bears inhabited the forest, and the wild turkeys 
flocked along the streams unscared by civilized man. 
Here and there was an Indian tribe with its rude 
village of huts or wigwams, and a few daring white 
men — hunters or fur traders — had penetrated this 
boundless wilderness, where at night the hoot of the 
owls and the barking of wolves could be heard around 
their lonely camp fires. 

The English claimed the whole of the Ohio Val- 
ley; but the French declared that it was theirs, as 
part of the Mississippi Valley, explored by La Salle. 
And the French decided to clinch their claim by a 
singular means. 

A Frenchman named Celoron de Bienville was 
sent by the governor of Canada down the Ohio with 
a company of Canadians and Indians in canoes. He 
was to bury a plate of lead at the root of a tree near 
the mouth of a river flowing into the Ohio. On this 
plate, in stamped letters, was a statement that the 
country belonged to France. 

The plate buried at the mouth of the Muskingum 
River was found fifty years later by some boys in 

65 



A Guide to American History 

swimming. It had been laid bare by the rains and 
freshets. The plate buried at the mouth of the Great 
Kanawha was found by a boy ninety-seven years 
after it had been placed there by Celoron. It is now 
in a museum at Richmond, Virginia. 

Celoron had with him an interpreter named Jon- 
caire, who was a half-breed, the son of a Frenchman 
and an Indian squaw. Most of the Indian tribes 
along the Ohio were unfriendly to the French, and 
Celoron would send Joncaire ahead to make friends 
of the Indians. This was not always easy to do. At 
the mouth of the Scioto there was a hostile tribe of 
Indians, and when Joncaire went to them bearing a 
flag they shot it full of holes. They then surrounded 
him with savage yells, brandishing their knives. 
Some wanted to kill him on the spot, but at length 
they let him go, and the party managed to get past 
this tribe without being fired on. 

Celoron found English traders here and there, and 
warned them to get off French territory forthwith. 
They promised to do so, but broke their promise as 
soon as the French were gone. 

The French buried the last of their leaden plates 
at the mouth of the Great Miami, and returned over- 
land to Montreal, having traveled twelve hundred 
leagues. Celoron reported to the governor that he 
found the Indians devoted to the English, and very 
ill disposed toward the French. 

This was very discouraging to the French, but 
what was more discouraging was a move made by the 
English about the same time. The Ohio Company 

56 



A Long Struggle for a Continent 

was formed, and a beginning made to settle in the 
Ohio Valley. A famous woodsman named Chris- 
topher Gist was sent to explore. He traversed the 
Ohio wilderness, and on his return reported that the 
Indians were very well disposed toward the English. 



Boyhood of a Great Man 

One of the young men who took an active part in 
the French and Indian War became in later years 
the leader in a greater war, and is now known as the 
Father of his Country. 

Nearly a hundred years before this time a wealthy 
Englishman named John Washington came to Vir- 
ginia and purchased a large plantation on the banks 
of the Potomac. His great grandson, whose name 
was George, was born in Westmoreland County in 
that colony on February 22, 1732, one year before 
the last colony, Georgia, was founded. 

George Washington was the only son of his mother, 
but he had two half-brothers, much older than him- 
self. Both of them were members of the Ohio Com- 
pany which was mentioned above. Both had been 
sent to England to be educated, and George would 
have been sent also but for the sad fact that his father 
died when he was eleven years old. He attended pri- 
vate schools and secured a fair education, but he 
never went to college. 

As a boy George was very fond of sports. He was 
an excellent horseman and marksman. He was taller 
and stronger than most boys of his age, and it was 

57 



A Guide to American History 

not an easy thing for his companions to excel him at 
anything on the playground. 

By the time he was seventeen he would some- 
times ride far over the country in company with a 
young friend of the same age, a son of Lord Fair- 
fax of England. The two hoys would often remain 
away from home for several days riding horseback 
among the mountains fifty miles or more from home. 
Sometimes they would build a camp fire and spend 
the night by it; and on several occasions they spent 
the night with the Indians. Whether they could un- 
derstand the Indian language, or the Indians could 
understand theirs, I am not able to say ; but they got 
along somehow, and no doubt enjoyed their experi- 
ence. 

While yet a boy George decided that he would 
like to become a sailor in the hope that some 
time he might become an officer in the king's 
navy. His mother was very unwilling to see her 
boy go to sea. She thought of the long dreary voy- 
ages of the sailing vessels, of the dangers of the 
mighty deep, of the rough men with whom he 
would associate; but at last she consented that he 
might go. 

All was ready for the first voyage. The ship was 
at the wharf, the trunk was packed, and George ran 
into the house to bid his mother good-by. He found 
her in tears. 

" Can you leave me, my dear boy ? " cried the 
mother. 

George was deeply moved. He threw his arms 

58 



A Long Struggle for a Continent 

about her and said : " I^o, mother, I cannot leave 
you; I shall not go to sea/' 

The trunk was brought back, and George gave up 
his cherished desire for the sake of his mother. 

Lawrence Washington, the elder of the half-broth- 
ers, was very fond of George. He was a man of frail 
health, and he made a trip to the West Indies in the 
hope of regaining his strength, and took George with 
him. While in the West Indies George took the 
smallpox, and for some time hovered between life 
and death. When he recovered they came back to 
Virginia, and not long afterwards Lawrence Wash- 
ington died. He had inherited his father's estate, as 
it was the law in Virginia at that time that the eldest 
son should inherit the estate of his father. 

Lawrence left a little daughter, a sickly child, but 
no sons, and he had made a will leaving his estate to 
her if she survived, and if not, it was to go to George. 

A few years later the little girl died, and at the 
age of twenty-one George Washington became one of 
the richest landholders in America. 

It was about this time that the French and Indian 
War broke out. The governor of Virginia wanted to 
send a message far up into northern Pennsylvania, 
hundreds of miles through the wilderness, and, when 
asked whom he would send, replied: 

" I shall send George Washington ; he is the brav- 
est man in the colony." 

And so he did. George took with him the skillful 
hunter, Christopher Gist, who had gone to explore 
the Ohio Valley a few years before. 

59 



A Guide to American History 

When the war opened Washington proved himself 
one of the bravest of the brave. He was with Gen- 
eral Braddock in the famous battle near Pittsburg, 
then called Fort Duquesne (Du Kane'). Here Brad- 
dock was killed and Washington had several horses 
shot under him, but escaped unhurt. 

The war lasted several years, and many are the 
stories of daring deeds, of hairbreadth escapes, and 
of Indian massacres. Here is one that you will find 
interesting, though it is sad. 

The Story of Eegina HAKXMAisr 

I have told you about the founding of Philadelphia 
by William Perm and the Quakers. But the Quak- 
ers were not the only people that came to Pennsyl- 
vania. 

One bright day in June, 1694, twelve years after 
Penn's arrival, the Quakers were surprised to see a 
company of strange people landing from a vessel in 
the Delaware. 

" Who are these peculiar people in strange attire 
and of foreign language ? " asked the Quakers. 

They were Germans who, like many other Euro- 
peans of that period, were seeking a home in the 
wilderness of the New World. The leader of the 
Germans was a college graduate, and many of them 
were educated. The English soon learned to like 
them, for they saw that the newcomers were a strong, 
industrious and self-reliant, and deeply religious peo- 
ple. 

60 



A Long Struggle for a Continent 

The Germans settled north of Philadelphia, up the 
Lehigh and Schuylkill valleys, and in the course of 
half a century there were many thousands of them 
in Pennsylvania. Their descendants are still called 
the Pennsylvania Germans, and sometimes, incor- 
rectly, the Pennsylvania Dutch. 

The Indians of the Ohio Valley, as we have 
noticed, were mostly favorable to the English, but 
in Pennsylvania and many other places they were 
hostile to the English and Germans, and many an 
innocent farmer and his family fell victims to the 
cruel tomahawk. The Indians, in making raids 
among the white settlements, were in the habit of 
killing the adult members of a family and carrying 
the children away with them and adopting them into 
their tribes. Now we are ready for the story of 
Regina. 

John Hartman was a German farmer who had 
come with his little family from the Fatherland and 
settled in a fertile valley among the hills near the 
place where Orwigsburg now stands. The family 
consisted of the parents and four children — two boys 
and two girls. The boys were George, almost a 
young man, and Christian, the baby, a chubby boy 
of &ve or six years. The two girls were Barbara, 
about twelve, and Regina, aged ten years. They were 
pious Lutheran people, and, though their nearest 
neighbors were far away, they were happy in their 
lonely home. 

One morning in the autumn of 1754, after Mr. 
Hartman had read as usual from the large German 

61 



A Guide to American History 

Bible brought with them from across the sea, and 
they had all knelt in prayer, they made their plans 
for the day. 

Mrs. Hartman was to ride on horseback some miles 
across the country to get a bag of flour from the mill, 
and little Christian was to go with her. Mr. Hart- 
man and George went to the field to work, and the 
two girls remained at the house to prepare dinner. 

Little Christian sat before his mother on the horse, 
and as they passed the field he waved his little fat 
hand and called a cheery " Good-by, papa ; good-by, 
George." 

At noon Barbara called the workers to dinner by 
a blast of the old tin horn. As they sat eating, the 
faithful family dog Wasser came running into the 
house in great fright. Mr. Hartman was alarmed, 
for he knew that no common foe could frighten 
Wasser. He rose and went to the door. Then came 
the sharp crack of a rifle, and he fell dead at his own 
threshold. George was bewildered. He sprang to 
the door, when another shot laid him dead across the 
body of his father. 

The next moment fifteen yelling, hideous Indian 
warriors crowded into the house. Wasser leaped and 
caught one of them by the throat and brought him 
down, but the noble dog was soon killed with a toma- 
hawk. The Indians then ate the dinner that the 
little girls had prepared, after which they took the 
terrified girls and led them to a field. Here they 
found tied to the fence a dear little girl only three 
years old. Her name was Susie Smith ; her parents 

62 



A Long Struggle for a Continent 

had been murdered by these same Indians but a few 
hours before. Some of the Indians now returned 
and set fire to the house and barn, and all the fruit 
of the toil of John Hartman, his own body and that 
of his son George were laid in the ashes. 

Toward evening Mrs. Hartman and her little boy 
returned from the mill. As they came to the top of 
a little hill and looked for the house, Mrs. Hartman 
was bewildered. She thought possibly they had 
taken a wrong road. But there was the huge pine 
tree that stood near the house. There could be no 
mistake. Just then the little boy cried : " Mutter, 
wo ist unsere Haus?" ("Mother, where is our 
house? "). 

The awful truth now sank into the soul of this 
good German woman. She saw the rising smoke; 
she knew the Indians to be hostile; her family and 
her home were destroyed. 

We cannot attempt to describe the deep sorrow of 
Mrs. Hartman — the long years that she mourned for 
those who were gone, her unwearied efforts to learn 
of the children that were taken captive by the red 
men, and her deep and abiding faith in God, a belief 
that He had a meaning to her great sorrow which she 
could not fathom. The neighbors built her a little 
house, and she lived alone with her boy, who was a 
great comfort and solace to her. 

The Indians forced the captive girls to go with 
them. In a day or two Barbara fell sick. At night 
she moaned with a raging fever. Begina was per- 
mitted to bring her water and comfort her as best 

63 



A Guide to American History 

she could as she lay on the damp ground. Next 
morning Barbara could not walk. The Indians mo- 
tioned to Regina to carry her on her back. This she 
tried to do, but sank under the burden. ^ 

The Indians consulted for a moment, when one of 
them walked up to the sick girl and sank his toma- 
hawk into her brain. As Regina watched the quiver- 
ing body of her sister till it was still in death, who 
can imagine her feeling of loneliness ? The body 
was afterwards found by friends of Mrs. Hartman 
and carried back to the old home for burial. 

This was a great relief to the bereaved mother. If 
only Regina, too, were dead, if it were not the will 
of God that she return alive; if only she could see 
the green grass wave above the tomb of her darling 
child, what a burden would be lifted from her break- 
ing heart. But to think of this little one growing up 
wild like her captors, of forgetting her lonely mother 
and the language of her childhood — all this weighed 
like lead on the heart of this noble mother, and it 
bowed her down with inexpressible grief. 

Regina, after the death of her sister, clung to little 
Susie. On they tramped for many days, going they 
knew not where. At length they came to an Indian 
village, and here they ended their journey. To their 
infinite delight the two girls were permitted to re- 
main together. They were assigned to an old Indian 
squaw, who lived alone in her wigwam at the edge of 
the village. 

Regina was given the name Sawquehanna, which 
means " The White Lily." She had to grind com, 

64 



A Long Struggle for a Continent 

to gather whortleberries, and wait on the old woman 
in many ways. 

Years passed away, and Regina felt that she was 
forgetting her native language. Often she would go 
out alone and repeat the Lord's Prayer and the 
Creed, as she had learned them long ago, and she 
would sing the religious songs she had learned in 
German that she might not forget the language. One 
of these songs began : 

Allein, und doch nicht ganz allein bin ich. 
(Alone, and yet not all alone am I) 

But as she grew to womanhood she almost forgot 
this, too, and she lost the power to pronounce her own 
name, Regina. 

Her remembrance of the home of her childhood 
— the little cabin among the trees, the happy family, 
the blessed, good face of her mother, the awful scenes 
of that dreadful last day — these seemed like a strange 
dream, and the meaning of it all she could not im- 
derstand. 

But at last the cruel war was over. When peace 
came the Indians were obliged to restore all the white 
children they had stolen, of whom there were several 
hundred. 

Hope began to rise in the heart of Mrs. Hartman. 
Officers came and persuaded her to make the trip to 
Carlisle, Pennsylvania, as many other bereaved par- 
ents were doing, because there were many unclaimed 
children there who had been rescued from the Ind- 
ians. 

65 



A Guide to American History 

Mrs. Hartman went to Carlisle. The children 
were placed standing in a line as the parents passed 
along trying to identify them. ISTow and again a 
shout of gladness arose and everybody cheered, as 
some one recognized a long-lost child. Mrs. Hart- 
man burst into tears. She had failed to find her lost 
Regina. 

Again she passed along scanning every girl. There 
was a tall Indian-looking girl, a young woman, whom 
the good mother looked at intently. It was nearly 
ten years since her daughter had been stolen. She 
must be almost a woman now. Might this not be 
she ? The girl returned the gaze for some minutes. 
There was no recognition, and the weeping mother 
passed on. She now prepared to go home in deeper 
sorrow than she had knovm since that awful day. 

The officer in charge asked her if there was no 
mark or sign on her daughter's body by which she 
might recognize her. " No, not one." 

" Is there no song that you used to sing to her ? 
Songs linger long in the mind.'' 

" Yes," said the mother, ^' we used to sing many 
German songs together." 

" Try it." And Mrs. Hartman walked again be- 
fore the line and sang in a low, tremulous voice: 

Allein, und doch nicht ganz allein bin ich. 

There was a shout from the tall Indian-looking 
girl. She joined in the song and leaped to her 
mother's arms, 

Mrs. Hartman cried in a faint, gasping tone, " O 

66 



A Long Struggle for a Continent 

my God ! my daughter, my Eegina ! '' Everyone 
present shed tears of joy. 

But Susie Smith still stood in the line, unclaimed ; 
her parents were dead. Mrs. Hartman and Eegina 
decided that she must go with them and live with 
them. So she did, and we can imagine the joy of 
that home-coming. 

A few years later Christian Hartman, now a man, 
was married to Susie Smith. A happy family in- 
deed it was, and when a girl baby was born, they 
named her Regina. 

End of the Long War 

War is a dreadful thing, but it sometimes brings 
good results. The Revolution brought independence 
and the Civil War overthrew slavery. So the French 
and Indian War had its good results. It settled the 
long quarrel between two great European nations, 
and decided that the future United States should be 
English, and not Erench. 

For two or three years at the beginning of the war 
the Erench were successful everywhere. Then came 
a change in the British ministry. William Pitt, the 
greatest Englishman of his time, came into power, 
and his management of the war soon turned the tide. 

Pitt designed not only to secure the Ohio Valley, 
but to conquer all Canada, and put an end to Erench 
rule in North America. He had wonderful success. 
He sent an army against Eort Duquesne, near which 
General Braddock had been defeated and slain, and 

67 



A Guide to American History 

captured the fort. The place was then called by his 
name, and the great city that has gro^vn up on the 
spot bears the name of Pittsburg. 

Finally, Pitt determined to send an army against 
the great stronghold of Canada, the city of Quebec. 
The French had already been entirely driven from 
the Ohio Valley, and Pitt knew that if they should 
lose this important city on the St. Lawrence, they 
could not hope to retain any foothold in America. 

General James Wolfe, a brilliant young com- 
mander, was chosen to lead the army against Quebec. 
Wolfe was the son of an army officer, and from child- 
hood he had learned the arts of war. While a very 
young boy he became known for daring deeds. 

Now, when he was chosen to command against 
Quebec, he seemed to have a presentiment that he 
would never return alive to his native land. Bidding 
his aged mother an affectionate good-by, he sailed to 
Canada and took command of the army. 

As the time of battle drew near, Wolfe kept re- 
peating the stanza in Gray's Elegy: 

The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, 
All that beauty, all that wealth e'er gave, 

Await alike the inevitable hour; 

The paths of glory lead but to the grave. 

The French had also a splendid commander at 
Quebec, the Marquis de Montcalm — the greatest 
Frenchman that ever set foot on American soil. 

The final death struggle for possession of the city 
came in September, 1759. The English scaled the 

68 



A Long Struggle for a Continent 

heights to the Plains of Abraham and opened fire. 
The battle was short and furious, and both the chief 
commanders were among the slain. 

Wolfe hurried here and there amid the hail of 
bullets encouraging his men. Twice wounded, he 
would not give up, when a third ball pierced his 
breast, and he fell to rise no more. As he lay dying 
he continued giving commands, and when told that 
the French were fleeing and the battle was won, he 
declared that he then could die in peace. 

Montcalm was equally brave, and when mortally 
wounded and his physician informed him that he 
could live but a short time, he declared that it was 
better that he should not live to see the surrender of 
Quebec. 

Soon after the fall of Quebec the war came to a 
close. When the treaty of peace was made, all 
Canada came into the possession of England, and 
that country holds it to this day. 

But France lost not only Canada and the Ohio 
Valley; she also lost Louisiana, the vast region that 
had been secured by La Salle. Louisiana was now 
ceded to Spain as her fee for having helped France 
during the war. 

The greatest and most far-reaching result of the 
French and Indian War was not the land cessions, 
but the fact that the language and civilization of the 
future United States were determined by it. That 
the new nation to be born in the near future was to 
be English, and not French, was decided on the 
Plains of Abraham. 

69 



CHAPTEK VII 

BEGINNINGS OF THE REVOLUTION 

OUR colonial period is sometimes called the 
childhood of the United States. The colonies 
came of age, and then, like a young man of twenty- 
one, struck out for themselves independent of the 
parent. 

We call the change of government the Revolution, 
which means a turning around, as a wheel turns or 
makes a revolution. We also speak of the war as 
the Revolution, though, more strictly speaking, it was 
the change of government that was the Revolution. 

We seem now to be an old-established nation. The 
oldest man living cannot remember when our nation 
was established; but our colonial period was a good 
deal longer than our national period has been. A 
man might have been born in Massachusetts or Vir- 
ginia, lived to be a great grandfather, and yet have 
died long before the Revolution. 

During all this long period the colonists lived as 
British subjects and were contented, for England had 
left them alone for the most part, and they governed 
themselves pretty much as they pleased. How long 
this condition would have continued had not a quar- 
rel arisen between the two, it is impossible to say. 

70 



Beginnings of the Revolution 

At any rate, the two peoples quarreled; they 
fought, they separated, and then, as two independent 
nations, they became good friends again. 

The quarrel came about unexpectedly on both 
sides. England did not really wish to offend the 
colonies, though she was quite ready to show them 
their dependent condition. In America there was no 
conspiracy with the object of winning independence. 
Everybody seemed contented to remain under Brit- 
ish authority, just as the people of Canada are now. 

But up rose a quarrel, which soon came to blows. 
Then neither side was willing to yield, and they kept 
on fighting until all their former friendship had dis- 
appeared. There was nothing then to do but fight 
to a finish, and if America won, it would mean entire 
separation; if England won, it would mean Amer- 
ica's entire submission to England's will. 

What was it all about? 

After the Erench and Indian War England had 
a heavy w^ar debt, and she decided to tax the col- 
onists. But the colonists declared that England had 
been well paid for her trouble in obtaining the Ohio 
Valley and Canada; and besides, the colonists had 
never been taxed, except by their own legislatures, 
and they would submit to nothing of the kind. 

" Taxation without representation is tyranny," 
they declared. 

As the colonies sent no representatives to the Eng- 
lish Parliament, they held that the Parliament had 
no right to tax them. 

William Pitt, that great Englishman who had so 

71 



A Guide to American History 

ably managed the French and Indian War, took the 
side of the colonists. He declared that Parliament 
had no right to tax them. " I am glad that America 
has resisted/' he said. 

But the obstinate king, George III, and his Par- 
liament would not listen to Pitt. They went ahead, 
and in 1765 passed the Stamp Tax law; that is, an 
act by which the Americans should purchase stamps 
made in England to be used on all sorts of public 
documents — deeds, wills, marriage licenses, and the 
like. But the Americans refused to buy the stamps, 
and they beat the stamp agents and drove them out 
of the towns. 

Parliament then repealed the Stamp law, but put 
a tax on tea just to show the Americans that it had 
the power to tax them when it wanted to. 

But the Americans refused to buy the tea, and a 
company of Bostonians, dressed up as Indians, 
boarded the tea ships in Boston harbor and dumped 
the tea into the water. 

This made George III so angry that he scarcely 
knew what to do. He closed the port of Boston and 
sent an army to America. " They will be lions," 
he declared, " while we are lambs ; but if we take the 
resolute part, they will undoubtedly prove very 
meek." But George III didn't know what he had 
undertaken. He found out his mistake in a short 
time. 

The people in all the colonies rose in defense 
of Massachusetts. A congress was called to meet 
in Philadelphia. A volunteer army gathered around 

72 




c3 



c3 

a; 
H 

o 

m 
O 



Beginnings of the Revolution 

Boston. It was not long until things began to 
happen. 

Spirit of the Americans 

In April, 1775, the British commander sent an 
army to destroy military stores at Concord, sixteen 
miles from Boston. But the people were roused by 
Paul Revere, who galloped out at midnight and 
shouted, '^ The British are coming, the British are 
coming ! " 

!N'ext day, April 19th, occurred the first battle of 
the Revolution — the battle of Lexington. The Brit- 
ish destroyed the stores at Concord, but they came 
near being destroyed themselves. The farmers fired 
on them from behind the fences, trees, bushes, and 
bowlders, as they ran back to Boston, and the road 
was strewn with redcoats along the way. 

This battle roused the N'ew England farmers, 
when the news reached them, as nothing had ever 
done before. Israel Putnam left his plow in the 
field, hurried to his house to say good-by to his 
family, and started for Boston. Matthew Buell, a 
Connecticut farmer, did the same thing. John Stark, 
of ^ew Hampshire, was sawing logs at his mill in 
his shirt sleeves, and he started for the scene of con- 
flict without a coat and without going to the house. 
On the way he gathered an army of twelve hundred 
men. Nathaniel Greene came from Rhode Island 
with a thousand followers ready to give their lives 
for their country. 

But this was not all. The women did their share. 

73 



A Guide to American History 

Mrs. Draper, the wife of a farmer near Dedham, 
Massachusetts, urged her husband and their sixteen- 
year-old boy to go, and when they had gone said to 
her daughter: 

^' Kate, we have work to do, too. There will be 
hundreds of men passing here within a few days. 
They will be hungry. We must feed them." 

The great outdoor oven was soon in operation. All 
that day, all night, and the next day the two women 
and a servant worked. They soon had a large stock 
of provisions ready. They made a long rough table 
of boards, and loaded it with bread and cheese and 
cider. Hundreds of would-be soldiers came along 
and partook of Mrs. Draper's bountiful store. Some 
of them, though half starved with their long walk, 
were so anxious to fight the British that they could 
scarcely be persuaded to stop long enough to satisfy 
their hunger. 

The people took the leaden weights of their clocks 
and window shades, spoons and leaden dishes, and 
sent them to the army to be melted into bullets ; many 
women sent their blankets and even their own flan- 
nel clothing to be made into men's shirts. 

A lady in Philadelphia wrote : " My only brother 
I have sent to the camp with my prayers and bless- 
ings, and had I twenty sons and brothers, they should 
all go. I have retrenched all extra expenses, have 
drunk no tea since Christmas, and spend my time 
making clothing for the soldiers." 

So it was all over the colonies. The people were 
so roused against the British oppression that they 

Y4 



Beginnings of the Revolution 

were willing to make any sacrifice for liberty. 
Patrick Henry, of Virginia, had said in a great 
speech, " I know not what course others may take, 
but as for me, give me liberty or give me death.'' 

Could George III have glanced over America at 
this time he must have seen that one of the two 
courses lay before him — to make peace with Amer- 
ica as best he could, or to make war upon a continent. 

Meantime the battle of Bunker Hill had been 
fought, and George Washington had been sent from 
Philadelphia to take control of the army. He met 
the army under a great elm tree at Cambridge, near 
Boston. 

Some months later he one night took his army up 
Dorchester Heights, where he could throw cannon 
balls among the British ships in the harbor. 

General Howe, who was now the English com- 
mander, saw that he was caught in a trap. He of- 
fered to leave the harbor if the Americans would 
refrain from firing on his ships. Washington agreed, 
and Howe sailed away with his army and went to 
Halifax, Nova Scotia. 

The people of Boston, who had been penned in the 
city for many months, laughed and cried for joy; 
they shouted and yelled, threw their hats in the air, 
and hugged one another in the streets. 

" Where's Howe ? " was often jovially asked. 

" Gone to Halifax," was the answer. And to this 
day we sometimes hear the expression, " Gone to 
Halifax." 



75 



A Guide to American History 

A Fight for a Valley 

The valley was the Hudson Valley, which was set- 
tled by the Dutch, as we have seen before. But now 
there were a great many English living there, too — 
or, it is better to say Americans from this time on. 

Howe had gone to Halifax, but no one thought he 
would stay there. 'No one believed that the war was 
over. Where would Howe land when he came back ? 
Not at Boston, of course, because there were a few 
cannon and men still on Dorchester Heights. 

Washington thought Howe would come to New 
York, and he felt so sure of it that he hurried his 
army thither to meet him. 

Sure enough, here came Howe and his army. 
Washington's men met them and fought like heroes. 
They had a fierce battle on Long Island and another 
on White Plains. But they were not so successful 
as they had been at Boston. Washington had to give 
up N&w York, and the British occupied the big city 
and held it to the end of the war. 

Then Washington had to flee across New Jersey, 
but he struck a telling blow at Trenton, and captured 
a thousand of the enemy. 

The fight for the Hudson Valley came in 1777. 
The British thought that if thej^ could get control of 
it, and thus separate New England from the other 
colonies, they would stand a much better chance to 
win in the end. 

General John Burgoyne was chosen by the Eng- 
lish to conduct the campaign. He led an army of 

76 



Beginnings of the Revolution 

ten thousand men down from Canada by way of 
Lake Champlain. 

But the Americans were not to be caught napping. 
They soon had an army under General Schuyler 
(Ski'-ler) moving up the Hudson to meet Burgoyne. 
At first the American army was not large enough to 
meet the British, and Schuyler, instead of offering 
battle, impeded the enemy's progress by rolling great 
bowlders in the road and felling trees across it. 

Burgoyne had a hard time of it indeed ; he couldn't 
march more than a mile a day. Schuyler had good 
reason to wait and delay battle. His army was in- 
creasing every day. The farmers with their old flint- 
lock guns were coming in by the hundreds and join- 
ing the American army. 

Burgoyne had to get all his supplies from Canada, 
and sometimes his soldiers were hungry. I^ow there 
was at Bennington, a town in Vermont some miles 
away, a large store of American goods — food and 
ammunition — and Burgoyne decided that he must 
have them. 

He sent a force of about seven hundred men to 
make the capture. But there was one thing that Bur- 
goyne did not know, or had forgotten — ^that John 
Stark was in the neighborhood. 

Stark had done noble service at Bunker Hill and 
at Trenton, and now, when he heard that Burgoyne 
had sent a force to capture the stores at Bennington, 
he soon had more than a thousand Green Mountain 
Boys to defend them. 

" They are ours to-night, boys, or Molly Stark is 

77 



A Guide to American History 

a widow." Moll J was his wife, and she did not be- 
come a widow that night. 

Fierce and short was the battle, and when it was 
over more than six hundred British troops were 
prisoners of war. Burgoyne didn't get the stores at 
Bennington. 

The British army was greatly weakened and dis- 
couraged by this blow at Bennington. Several hun- 
dred Indians had joined it, but now they began to 
desert — to steal away and return to their forest homes 
— for they believed that nothing but disaster awaited 
the British army. 

And so it proved. Burgoyne's men were faithful 
and brave, but the odds against them were too great. 
The American farmers had flocked in until twenty 
thousand men stood ready to fight for their country 
and liberty. General Schuyler had been replaced by 
General Gates as the American commander. 

At last, after two hard battles had been fought, 
the British gave up and surrendered. The whole 
army were made prisoners of war. 

A few days before the surrender one of the British 
commanders. General Fraser, was mortally wounded. 
As he lay dying he requested that he be buried on a 
green hill near the river at the hour of twilight. His 
friends did as he had requested, and as the little 
band gathered sadly about the grave of their fallen 
comrade, the deep voice of the chaplain who read the 
service was rendered more awful and impressive by 
the roar of the American artillery in the distance. 

After the British had laid down their arms they 

78 




o 

■cD 









n 



Beginnings of the Revolution 

were no longer treated as enemies. The wife of one 
of the generals who had accompanied him through 
the campaign wrote afterwards that the Americans 
had treated their captives with great kindness. " In- 
deed/' she declared, " they behaved like persons of 
exalted minds, who determined to bury all recollec- 
tions of their own injuries in the contemplation of 
our misfortunes." General Burgoyne, who had de- 
stroyed Schuyler's beautiful country house, said to 
Schuyler, " You show me much kindness though I 
have done you much injury." 

^' That was the fate of war," answered the gallant 
American. " Let us say no more about it." 

The surrendered army was sent first to Boston and 
afterwards to Virginia, and not till the end of the 
war did the men go back to England. 

The surrender of Burgoyne is considered the turn- 
ing point in the long war. From this time on it was 
generally believed on both sides of the Atlantic that 
the Americans would win in the end, and become an 
independent nation. 



79 



CHAPTER VIII 

VICTORY IN THE END 



A 



GREATER event than the surrender of Bar 
goyne took place in Philadelphia the year be- 
fore. The Continental Congress had met in that 
city and voted a Declaration of Independence; that 
is, a declaration that England should no longer have 
any control over the colonies — that they should 
henceforth be an independent nation. The old Lib- 
erty Bell rang out the glad tidings, and the people 
shouted and cheered for joy. 

Post riders were sent to Virginia, to ^ew England, 
and to all parts of the country to proclaim the great 
news. When the news reached New York a leaden 
statue of George III was torn down and melted into 
bullets. 

But the Declaration of Independence did not bring 
independence. Nothing but long years of warfare 
could do that. The people knew this. They knew 
that it meant great suffering, vacant chairs at the 
family fireside, widowed mothers and fatherless chil- 
dren. But they took no step backward — they pressed 
on to the mark till the prize was won. 

When the news of the great declaration reached 
the soldiers in the field they rejoiced exceedingly. 

80 



1 



Victory in the End 

Before this they hardly knew what they were fight- 
ing for. 

Brandywine 

While the Hudson Valley was the main seat of 
war General Washington held his army in New Jer- 
sey to watch Howe, who remained with his army in 
the city of New York. But in midsummer Howe 
sailed away to the Chesapeake, and Washington 
marched across New Jersey and Pennsylvania to 
meet him. 

In September, 1777, the two armies met on the 
banks of the Brandywine, a little stream in southern 
Pennsylvania. A desperate battle was fought, kno^Mi 
as the battle of Brandywine. Washington was de- 
feated. His army was much smaller than that of his 
enemy, and he was obliged to retreat toward Phila- 
delphia. 

Howe followed, and Washington saw that he could 
not save the city. Late in September Howe occupied 
the American capital. But a week or so later he had 
to fight the Americans again at Germantov^ra. Nei- 
ther side won much of a victory. Howe went back 
to the city, and Washington encamped at White 
Marsh, not far away. 

Lydia Darrah 

While Washington was at White Marsh, Howe 
planned to make an unexpected night attack on the 
Americans, but his plan miscarried, and here is how 
it happened: 

81 



A Guide to American History 

Ljdia Darrali was the heroine who saved probably 
hundreds of lives that night. She and her husband 
and children lived in a house just across the street 
from where General Howe had his headquarters in 
Philadelphia, and the British officers often came to 
her house for consultation. 

One day an officer told her that he and his friends 
wished to occupy the usual upper room in her house 
that night, and said that he wanted all the family 
to go to bed early and the doors locked while he was 
in the house. After the consultation was over, he 
would wake her so that she could lock the door again 
when they were gone. 

Lydia could not understand why such secrecy was 
enjoined, and the thought troubled her. But she car- 
ried out the order. The family retired early. Lydia 
let the officers in and retired to her room. But she 
could not sleep. She thought about the mystery of 
the night meeting of the officers, and feared that there 
was something serious in the wind. She rose from 
her bed and crept softly to the door of the room where 
the men were, applied her ear to the keyhole, and lis- 
tened for some time. 

At first she could distinguish nothing in the din 
of voices, but presently all became silent, and one 
man began to read a paper. It disclosed a plan to 
march secretly from the city on the night of Decem- 
ber 4th, catch Washington unprepared, and attack 
him at daybreak. 

The meeting soon broke up. Lydia stole back to 
her room and threw herself on the bed. Presently 

82 



Victory in the End 

the officer came and knocked on her door. 'No an- 
swer. Again and again he knocked. At length she 
got up and came to the door, rubbing her eyes as if 
she had been roused from a profound slumber. She 
let the officers out, locked the door again, and re- 
turned to her room. For a long time she was in deep 
thought. How many hundreds, perhaps thousands, 
of lives of her countrymen she might save if only she 
could get word to Washington of the intended attack. 
But whatever was to be done must be done quickly, 
for it was only two days till the attack was to be 
made. 

But it was a perilous business to play the informer. 
No one could pass the British lines without a written 
permit, and anyone caught as a spy must suffer 
death. Such are the rules of war. And yet the re- 
sponsibility of Lydia Darrah was awful. How could 
she refuse to save many lives, even at the risk of her 
own? She spent a sleepless night, and by daylight 
her mind was made up. 

In the morning she said to her husband, " We need 
flour, and I must go to Frankfort to-day and get a 
bag.'' . 

^' Who is this person who wants a pass ? " said the 
British officer, an hour later. 

^' Lydia Darrah/' was the answer. 

" Let me see — Lydia Darrah ? Oh, yes, she lives 
over there. We often use her house. She's a good 
woman. Yes, give her the pass. Certainly." 

A little later Lydia was speeding through the 
snowy streets toward Frankfort. Ere noon she met 

83 



A Guide to American History 

a horseman sent out by Washington (such as he al- 
ways had on the road) to get information. She told 
him her secret. He thanked her and galloped away 
toward the army at White Marsh. That evening 
Lydia trudged into her home looking innocent 
enough, with a bag of flour on her shoulder. 

Next night the British army marched silently out 
of the city and made ready for a grand surprise and 
assault. But when Howe came near he found Wash- 
ington's army in a strong position, cannon mounted, 
men with loaded muskets drawn up in battle line. 

It was the British that were surprised. Howe led 
his men back without firing a gun, crestfallen, and, 
as one of his ofiicers said, '^ feeling like a parcel of 
fools." And they never knew the part played by 
Lydia Darrah. 

Valley Forge 

A valley among the hills, some twenty miles from 
Philadelphia, on the banks of the winding Schuyl- 
kill, is known as Valley Forge. It was here that 
General Washington led his army, and here they 
spent a cold, severe winter, while the British occu- 
pied comfortable homes in Philadelphia. 

A gTeat many of the American soldiers wore cloth- 
ing that was little better than rags. Many were with- 
out shoes or blankets. The first thing they did was 
to build cabins to shelter them. The cabins were 
one story in height, and each was made to accommo- 
date twelve men. Their tables were made of rough 

81 



Victory in the End 

boards, but there was very little to put on them. 
Often the men sat down to a meal of nothing but salt 
herring and potatoes. 

Many of the farmers round the country refused to 
bring in their produce in fear that they would never 
be paid for it. Others were more patriotic. One 
farmer down in Delaware said he would rather drive 
his cattle to Washington as a gift than to sell them 
to Howe for a thousand dollars in gold. 

Some of the soldiers had homes and families in 
Philadelphia, and their wives would sometimes pass 
through the British lines in the guise of market 
women and bring baskets of provisions to their hus- 
bands in camp. One, Mrs. Knight, made a practice 
of doing this all winter through, passing the British 
lines many a time unsuspected. 

One more story — one that has never before been 
put in print — and we leave Valley Forge. There was 
a little negro girl, seven years old, who was a slave 
in a family two or three miles from Valley Forge, 
for Pennsylvania had slaves in those days. Her 
name was Mary Macdonald. 

The soldiers often tramped about the country in 
small groups and asked the farmers for something to 
eat. The OTvnier of Mary Macdonald and his wife 
were very kind people and good patriots. They would 
have a few loaves of bread extra each day, and cook 
a little more meat and vegetables than the family 
needed that they might feed the hungry soldiers. 

Mary would stand at the window and watch, and 
when she saw them coming she would run and get 

85 



A Guide to American History 

tlie things prepared for them. One day when the 
family was away, and she was keeping house, two or 
three men came, and she went to get them food, but, 
lo! the cupboard was bare. She then thought of a 
basket of chestnuts which she had gathered in the 
fall, and asked them if they would like a handful of 
chestnuts. 

^' Yes,'' they answered, " anything that is good to 
eat." 

She ran and got a handful for each. They were 
so pleased that she did the same for others day after 
day until her little store was gone. 

The most interesting feature of this story is that 
Mary Macdonald related it to the author of this book 
one hundred and twenty-five years after the event. 
He asked her many questions, and became convinced 
that she was telling the truth. She probably lived 
longer than anyone else in America or England who 
passed through the days of the Revolution. She died 
a few years ago at the Home for Aged Colored 
People, in Philadelphia, at the great age of one hun- 
dred and thirty-five years. 

!Fkan"ce to the Rescue — Fkanklin 

In the midst of the suffering through the hard 
winter at Valley Forge there came to the war-broken 
soldiers a bit of news that cheered their hearts as 
nothing had done since the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. They yelled and shouted themselves hoarse 
with joy. 

86 



Victory in the End 

It was that France had recognized the independ- 
ence of the United States, and had made a treaty of 
alliance with us. That meant immediate war be- 
tween France and England. It meant that England 
would henceforth have two nations to fight instead 
of one; and it meant that American success in the 
end seemed now a certainty. 

Why France did this is not of much importance. 
It could not have been because of her love for the 
Americans. She had met them but little except as 
enemies on the field of battle, in the French and 
Indian War. It could not have been her love of 
liberty, for France was not a country of liberty at 
that time. Perhaps it was her hatred of England, 
for she was still smarting under the loss of Canada 
and the Ohio Valley. 

If a big boy abuses a little boy on the playground 
and another big boy comes along and takes the little 
boy's part, he wiU win the little boy's heart, what- 
ever his motives. And so France won the American 
heart. We have not forgotten to this day, and we 
should never forget, the aid given us by this great 
European power during the dark days of the Eevo- 
lution. 

But if there is any one person to thank above all 
others for this French treaty, it is not a Frenchman, 
but an American — Benjamin Franklin. Long be- 
fore the Bevolution, Franklin was famous all over 
Europe, and he was the only American who was well 
known abroad. The reader, of course, knows of the 
early life of Franklin — the story of the whistle, of 

87 



A Guide to American History 

his great desire for books, his apprenticeship in 
Boston to his brother as a printer, his running away 
to 'New York, where he walked the streets in search 
of work till he was weary and hungry ; his tramping 
across New Jersey to Philadelphia, which became his 
home. 

Franklin became famous for his studies in science, 
especially for his discovery of electricity, and for 
Poor Richard's Almanac, which he began publishing 
in the year in which Washington was born. 

When the men of the Pevolution wanted a special 
messenger to go to Prance to try to persuade the 
French king to recognize America, their eyes turned 
to Pranklin. He went to Paris, and was received 
almost like a king. Everybody had heard of him 
before. They had read his trite sayings and heard 
of his inventions and discoveries. When he reached 
Paris the people shouted him a glad welcome, and 
the king received him with marked honor. Indeed, 
Pranklin became the rage for a time in Paris. Prank- 
lin badges were worn by fashionable ladies. Franklin 
hats and Pranklin this and that were seen in the store 
windows. But Franklin soon got do\\Ti to business. 
He labored in season and out of season for more than 
a year to secure the recognition of the independence 
of America. 

Victory came at last. The surrender of Burgoyne 
in October, 1777, led the French king to believe that 
the Americans would gain the final victory, and that 
it would be safe to enter into an alliance. He told 
Franklin that he was ready. The treaty was con- 

88 



Victory in the End 

eluded in February, 1778, and the news reached 
America and Valley Forge late in the winter. 



A Valiant FEENCHMAisr 

The French alliance reminds us of one Frenchman 
in particular whom we must not pass by unnoticed. 
He was a young nobleman of wealth and high station 
— the Marquis de Lafayette. 

Sitting one day at dinner in GeiTnany where also 
sat a brother of the King of England, Lafayette 
heard his friend tell of the war his brother was car- 
rying on with his colonists in America. Lafayette 
had an inborn love of liberty, and when, by further 
inquiry, he found that the Americans were fighting 
in the glorious cause of human freedom, he resolved 
to go to their assistance. 

He applied to the French king, Louis XVI, for 
permission to take part in the American war, but 
the request was refused. This was before the king 
had made the treaty with America, and he did not 
wish at this time to offend England. 

Lafayette, however, secretly purchased and fitted 
out a vessel, intending to go without consent. Prob- 
ably he knew that the king at heart did not object, 
but only pretended, in order to keep peace with Eng- 
land. Lafayette sent his ship to a port on the coast 
of Spain, and was on the way to board it when the 
English minister at Paris insisted that he be arrested 
and detained. Lafayette was thereupon arrested by 
the king's order and imprisoned in southern France. 

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A Guide to American History 

Prom this prison our hero escaped in the guise of 
a workman. He blackened his face, put on false hair, 
and with a large board on his shoulder walked past 
the guards as a colored laborer. A carriage was in 
waiting, and ere long he was speeding for the bound- 
ary of Spain, which was not many miles away. 
When the keepers of the prison discovered that their 
prey had escaped, they sent riders on swift horses to 
overtake him; but they were too late, for as they 
came in sight of the fleeing carriage it crossed the 
line into Spain, and they dared not make the arrest 
outside of France. 

Lafayette soon reached his vessel, and they put to 
sea. The captain did not know whither they were 
going, and when well out at sea Lafayette ordered 
him to steer for the United States. He refused, de- 
claring that the English cruisers would capture them 
before they were half way across the Atlantic. 

Lafayette then in a stern voice said : 

" This is my vessel. I command you to steer for 
the American coast. If you do not I will put you 
in irons." 

The man then obeyed, and a few weeks later they 
landed on the coast of South Carolina. 

After boarding the Victory (for this was the name 
of his ship), Lafayette, writing a last adieu to his 
wife, used these noble words : " From love to me, 
become a good American. The welfare of America 
is closely bound up with the welfare of mankind." 

Lafayette joined the staff of Washington, who 
soon came to love him almost as a son. He served 

90 



Victory in the End 

valiantly through the war, and returned with high 
honor to his native land, with the consciousness of 
having done a noble service in the holy cause of 
liberty. 

HaK a century later, when the United States had 
become a rich and mighty nation, and when La- 
fayette was an old man, he came to America again, 
to visit the people he had fought for in his youth. 

He was welcomed with honor and splendor such 
as no other foreigner has ever received from the 
American people. Congress voted him $200,000 and 
a whole township of land in Florida, not as a gift, 
but (as they courteously put it) as part pay for his 
service in the Kevolution. 

A Trip to the South 

Let us make an excursion to the South and see 
what they are doing there. 

We left Washington and his faithful army at Val- 
ley Forge. But in the spring the British left Phila- 
delphia and moved across New Jersey to l!^ew York. 
Washington followed and overtook them at Mon- 
mouth, ISTew Jersey, where a heavy battle was fought. 
The British then went on to 'New York, and Wash- 
ington lingered near to watch them. 

So meager was the success of the British at the 
ISTorth that they decided to try their fortune in the 
South. An army was sent to Georgia. It soon cap- 
tured the city of Savannah and overran the whole 
State of Georgia. A year or two later the city of 

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A Guide to American History 

Charleston and the whole State of South Carolina 
fell into British hands. 

The patriot army had been captured at Charles- 
ton, and it seemed that the patriot cause was dead in 
that section. 

But it was not dead. Thousands of devoted pa- 
triots were true to the cause of liberty during these 
dark days, and only waited an opportunity to strike 
a blow for their country. 

I shall relate two or three incidents to show the 
devotion of the Southern people to the cause of the 
Bevolution. 

There was an old gentleman named John Gaston 
who lived near the Catawba River, in South Caro- 
lina. He was a patriot to the core. He often sent 
his son fifty miles to get a newspaper so as to keep 
track of the war. His sons and nephews, who were 
as true to the cause as himself, met one night at his 
house to confer as to how they could best serve their 
country. 

While talking together a messenger came running 
to the house and told of a fearful massacre of a band 
of Americans by some British cavalry near a place 
called Waxhaw. The young men grasped each other 
by the hand and vowed that they would suffer death 
rather than submit to the invaders. 

A few miles away the British had a force of two 
hundred men in a strong position known as Bocky 
Mount. From here they sent agents to old Mr. Gas- 
ton to persuade him to take the oath of submission 
to the king, for they had heard that his influence 

92 







in 

o 

p 

c 
o 



o 



0) 



Victory in the End 

was so great that he could control the whole neigh- 
borhood. The only answer of the old man was 
":N'ever!" 

Soon after this he heard that the enemy were plan- 
ning a raid on his house and plantation. He called 
his sons and nephews together, and they sent word 
to the young men of the neighborhood. In a few 
hours there were thirty-three stalwart young Amer- 
icans, clad in hunting shirts, deer-skin caps and moc- 
casins, each with a knife in his belt and a rifle on 
his shoulder, ready to strike a blow in the cause of 
freedom. 

The old man stood in his door and waved them a 
proud good-by as they crept noiselessly along an 
Indian trail to where the British were encamped. 
Swiftly and hard they struck, and the enemy, out- 
numbering them seven or eight to one, were thrown 
into hopeless confusion, and those who were not killed 
or wounded ran for their lives. 

This has been called the first blow struck for the 
recovery of South Carolina. 

The young men remained in the field fighting the 
enemy wherever they could. Soon after this the aged 
Mr. Gaston heard that the British intended to come 
in force to take him, dead or alive. He mounted a 
horse, bade his wife and grandchild good-by, and 
rode into the forest to a place of safety. Scarcely 
had he gone when the British came. Mrs. Gaston 
and her grandchild had hidden in a near-by thicket, 
where they crouched in terror till the marauders were 
gone. They carried off everything they could; but 

93 



A Guide to American History 

Mrs. Gaston had taken with her the family Bible, 
and it is preserved by her descendants to this day. 



A Tale of Two Preachers 

In the wilderness of South Carolina, not a great 
many miles from Rocky Mount, there was a settle- 
ment of Scotch-Irish, a congregation who had come 
to America with their pastor, Rev. William Martin, 
but seven years before. 

So devoted to their religion were they that they 
built a log church before many of them had built 
their own cabins, living in tents in the mean time. 
Here they would meet on Sundays — men, women, 
and children — taking their Bibles with them and 
looking up every passage to which the minister re- 
ferred in his sermon. 

Their sympathies were all with the Americans in 
the war, though few of them had gone to join the 
army. When they heard of the Waxhaw massacre 
they were horrified, but waited to hear the opinion 
of their good pastor before taking any action. 

Sunday came, and the whole neighborhood gath- 
ered at the log meetinghouse. Everybody was stirred 
up over the news from Waxhaw. Men stood in little 
groups discussing the approaching danger. At length 
the Rev. Mr. Martin arrived. He was a large, power- 
ful man, learned and eloquent, with a voice that rang 
far out in the forest when he preached. On this day 
his words seemed more eloquent than ever before. 

He told how their forefathers in Scotland had 

94 



Victory in the End 

fought for their liberty ; how the Scriptures approved 
the rising of a people against wicked rulers ; how the 
Lutherans at the time of the Reformation had to 
fight for their existence. 

'^ Talk and angry words will do no good. We 
must fight.'' 

The services over, a fierce look of determination 
marked every face — of the women as well as the men. 
After a long consultation among the men they went 
to their homes. Here is a sample of how they broke 
the news to the women. One William Anderson, 
walking home with his wife, was silent for a long 
time. His wife spoke first: 

^^ I think, William, that little Lizzie and I can 
finish tending the crops," and William answered : 

" I am glad o' that, Kancy ; I was silent, for I 
didna ken how to let you know it, but to-morrow 
morning I leave home." 

In fact, all the able-bodied men of the congrega- 
tion had agreed to meet next morning. That night 
I^ancy Anderson rose soon after midnight and spent 
the remaining hours baking bread and biscuits 
and packing a bag of food for her husband to take 
with him. The men met at the appointed time, and 
enlisted in the service, many of them remaining un- 
der arms until the enemy was driven out of the State. 

The other instance of a preacher and the war is 
more famous than the one given above. The minis- 
ter was John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, pastor of 
a large German Lutheran church at Woodstock, Vir- 
ginia. 

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A Guide to American History 

Washington knew Pastor Muhlenberg well, knew 
the mettle of the man, and asked him to accept a 
coloneFs commission in the army. The offer was 
accepted, but for a time the matter was not made 
public. 

Some time after this, one Sunday after Mr. 
Muhlenberg had preached an eloquent sermon to a 
large congregation, he stepped out from the pulpit 
and declared that there was a time for everything — 
a time to preach and a time to fight. 

" And now is the time to fight ! '' 

So saying he threw off his ministerial robe and 
stepped forth in a full colonel's uniform. 

He ordered drums to be beaten for volunteers, and 
it was not long until he had three hundred men of 
his own congregation under arms and ready for the 
field. They were led into battle by their pastor — a 
good example of combining religion and patriotism. 

Pastor Muhlenberg became a major-general, and 
served under Washington for several years. His 
regiment, the Eighth Virginia, known as the " Ger- 
man regiment," was noted for its great steadiness 
and courage in battle, and it often received the high- 
est praise from the commander-in-chief. 

King's Mountain 

There were many battles fought in the South, but 
here we shall notice only one — the battle of King's 
Mountain — and a strange sort of battle it was. 

At the beginning of the war the battle of Lexing- 

96 



Victory in the End 

ton was fought on the American side by men who 
had not been soldiers, though most of them became 
soldiers afterwards. King's Mountain was fought 
by men who were not enlisted soldiers either before 
or after the battle. 

The South country had been dreadfully ravaged 
by the royal armies, and the patriots were greatly 
discouraged. But when the cause of liberty seemed 
dark indeed there was a sudden change. 

Lord Cornwallis sent Colonel Ferguson, in the 
autumn of 1780, with twelve hundred men, to ravage 
the Carolinas and gather in Tory sympathizers, and 
the news of the raid spread up the mountain slopes, 
and beyond. In that back country lived hundreds of 
mountaineers — bold, brave men who were accus- 
tomed to fighting Indians and killing wild animals. 

When these men heard of Ferguson's raid they 
determined to go after him. So eager were the men 
to go that a few hundred of them had to be drafted 
to stay at home to guard the settlements. 

More than a thousand of these hardy backwoods- 
men seized their muskets and poured over the moun- 
tains in search of Ferguson's army. Others joined 
them along the way, and they were thirteen hundred 
strong when they reached the enemy. A motley 
crowd they were — pioneer farmers, mountain ran- 
gers, Indian fighters, and hunters. Each man wore 
a sprig of hemlock in his hat. Dressed in their hunt- 
ing shirts, they were fearless and boiling with pa- 
triotism, and every man was a dead shot with a rifle. 

As they passed by a farmhouse they found a man 

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A Guide to American History 

in the cellar whom Ferguson had left there to spy 
on the Americans. He was dragged out and told that 
the only way to save his life was to turn spy on the 
other side. He did so, and informed the patriots 
of the movements of the British. When asked how 
they could identify Ferguson, he at first refused to 
tell ; but, seeing his life in danger, exclaimed, ^' He 
wears a large check shirt over his uniform." 

Ferguson had posted his men on a spur of King's 
Mountain, not far from the boundary between the 
Carolinas. Here the mountaineers found him on 
October 7, 1780, and a desperate battle was soon in 
progress. 

The Americans surrounded the hill and attacked 
the enemy from all sides. Again and again they 
surged up the slope and were driven back. But they 
always came again, and at last the British were worn 
out and could fight no longer. 

Hundreds of them lay bleeding on the ground, the 
victims of the sharpshooters' bullets, while the Amer- 
ican loss was slight. 

Ferguson was a man of foolish valor. He refused 
to give up when he knew that he was beaten. He 
struck down with his sword a flag of truce raised by 
one of his men. He then made a fatal dash through 
the American lines for liberty. But the patriots re- 
membered the " large check shirt over the uniform." 
They had heard of his cruelty in ravaging the coun- 
try, and now was their opportunity. Five rifles were 
leveled at the dashing Briton, and he fell pierced by 
five mortal wounds. 

98 



Victory in the End 

The remnant of his army then gave up and became 
captives. The victory of King's Mountain was com- 
plete. The men who won it hied themselves back to 
their crude civilization beyond the mountains. They 
had struck one telling blow for liberty, and never 
again was the patriot cause at so low an ebb as it had 
been before. 

Soon after the victory at King's Mountain Gen- 
eral Nathaniel Greene arrived in the South with an 
army, and to him the South was chiefly indebted for 
clearing that section of the fearful raids of the 
enemy. Several hard battles were fought, the last 
being at Eutaw Springs on September 8, 1781. 

In this battle the brave young cavalry leader, 
Colonel William Washington, a relative of the com- 
mander-in-chief, was wounded and taken prisoner. 

He was carried to Charleston and placed in a hos- 
pital. As he lay here day after day slowly recover- 
ing from his wounds, he was attracted by a beautiful 
young lady who came daily to the hospital and moved 
about like a ministering angel among the suffering 
men, speaking words of comfort and encouragement 
to all. She was Jane Elliot, a rich young woman 
who had given much of her property to found hos- 
pitals and aid the suffering patriots. 

Colonel Washington came to admire and then to 
love Jane Elliot, and two years later, when the cruel 
war was over, they were married. Probably the 
brave young ofiicer never regretted that he was 
wounded and captured at Eutaw Springs. 

One more story of the Carolinas. There was a 

99 



1 



A Guide to American History 



widow with two sons, Robert and Andrew, aged fif- 
teen and thirteen years. When the British raiders 
came through their neighborhood both the boys shoul- 
dered arms and went out to meet the enemy. Though 
Andrew was but thirteen, he was as tall as a man and 
as brave as a lion. 

Both the boys were captured by the enemy. While 
confined in a farmhouse a British officer ordered 
Andrew to clean his boots. Andrew refused, say- 
ing: 

" I am a prisoner of war, and claim to be treated 
as such." 

The officer then struck him with his sword, and 
would have killed him, had not the boy saved his life 
by throwing up his hand ; but he received a deep 
wound in the hand and another in the head. The 
boys were taken to Camden and thrust into a loath- 
some prison with many others, where they had to 
sleep on the damp ground. 

The mother was one of the noblest of women. She 
had spent her strength and health serving the pa- 
triots. Now she made a long journey to Camden to 
seek the release of her boys. When she arrived both 
had taken the smallpox. She succeeded, and they 
started for home. Andrew walked the entire dis- 
tance without hat or shoes while suffering with 
smallpox. Robert, too ill to walk, rode on horse- 
back. A few days after they reached home Robert 
died. Andrew recovered. 

Some months later the mother made another long 
trip to relieve some prisoners, leaving Andrew with 

100 



Victory in the End 

friends. When asked why she sacrificed so much, she 
answered, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one 
of the least of these, ye have done it unto me." 

^ever again did Andrew see his mother. She died 
of a fever far from home, was buried by strange 
hands, and her grave was never found by her sorrow- 
ing son. 

Don't forget this boy Andrew. He was a remark- 
able boy. We shall meet him again. Fifty years 
after these events he was President of the United 
States. 

An Affair at Yorktown 

Yorktown was a village on the coast of Virginia, 
and with a brief notice of what took place there 
we shall pass on from the Eevolution to something 
else. 

Cornwallis was greatly crippled by the British dis- 
aster at King's Mountain. He had lost the rich prize 
for which he had labored for two or three years — 
the control of the Carolinas. Instead of trying to 
win back this territory he moved northward into Vir- 
ginia. Here he found our young Frenchman, La- 
fayette, who disputed every step of his progress. 
Lafayette's army was too small to give battle, but by 
quick movements it greatly annoyed and harassed 
the enemy. At one time the British commander 
thought he had Lafayette cornered, and he expected 
to capture his whole army. 

" The boy cannot escape me," he declared. But 
the boy did escape. He had been schooled too long 

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A Guide to American History 

under Washington to be outwitted. In August, 
1781, Cornwallis occupied Yorktown. 

He left Washington, after the battle of Monmouth, 
near 'New York, where he remained for nearly three 
years guarding the Hudson Valley, which General 
Clinton threatened to invade. Suddenly Washing- 
ton saw a chance to make a brilliant stroke. He 
joined his army with an army of Frenchmen who 
had been sent over to help the Americans, and started 
for Virginia to capture Cornwallis. In order to keep 
Clinton in ignorance of his intentions, he guarded 
his secret so carefully that his own men did not know 
where they were going until they had almost reached 
the Delaware. 

Cornwallis would have escaped by sea, but there 
was a French fleet in the bay. And he might have 
escaped by land, but here was Lafayette's army, now 
swelled to eight thousand men, lying across the 
peninsula. Late in August Washington arrived, 
and Yorktown was soon surrounded. The artillery 
was mounted, and day and night the boom of cannon 
swelled and rolled over the doomed city. The Brit- 
ish at last saw that there was no escape, that there 
was nothing left but to surrender, and on October 
17th, precisely four years after the surrender of Gen- 
eral Burgoyne, a white flag, a token of surrender, 
was seen waving above the British works at York- 
town. 

Thus ended the long War of the Bevolution. 
America had won, and two years later a treaty of 
peace was made in which the British Government 

102 



Victory in the End 

acknowledged tlie independence of the United States. 
Long and loud were the shouts and rejoicings of the 
people, though at many a fireside there were vacant 
chairs, and in many a home there were broken-down 
men. Such was the price that our forefathers paid 
for the liberty we now enjoy. 



103 



CHAPTEE IX 

SETTLEMENT OF THE OHIO VALLEY 

rr\ HE long war was over and the people felt a sense 
-^ of freedom as never before. But there was a 
great problem still before them — the problem of self- 
government, the problem of forming a solid union. 
It was in 1787 that a convention met in Philadelphia 
and framed the Constitution which is still our su- 
preme law of the land. But the account of this great 
event we shall leave the reader to glean from other 
books and turn our attention for the moment to the 
settlement of the West. 

We have noted that the great valley of the Ohio 
had been in part explored by La Salle and by Chris- 
topher Gist. It had been fought over by France and 
England, and again by England and the colonies. 
Now at last it had become a permanent possession 
of the American people. 

Soon after the close of the war there was a great 
movement toward the settling of this vast wilderness; 
but first there were thousands of the red children of 
the forest roaming over the hills and valleys of Ohio, 
and these had to be dealt with. You have doubtless 
read of the defeat of St. Clair and of the victory of 
Wayne at the battle of Fallen Timbers. But before 

104 



Settlement of the Ohio Valley 

these events came the lonely pioneer, the hunter and 
Indian fighter, who paved the way for the settler. 
Let us follow the fortunes and misfortunes of one of 
these as a sample of all. The most famous of the 
early Indian fighters was Daniel Boone; but we shall 
choose one whose career though not so well known 
is still more exciting. 

The Story of Simon Kenton 

Simon Kenton was a Virginia boy, brought up 
on a farm with almost no education. One of the 
playmates of his childhood was a girl of about his 
own age, the daughter of a neighboring farmer. 
When they grew older they became engaged to be 
married. But the girl, while visiting Alexandria, 
met a man who became Simon's rival for her affec- 
tions. 

One night the two men met at a party. A quarrel 
arose between them and the Alexandrian drew a 
sword and threatened to kill his rival. 

Kenton, though only seventeen, was a powerful 
youth, more than six feet tall. He was angered be- 
yond control when the man drew a sword on him. 
He leaped forward, wrested the sword from his ene- 
my's hand, threw it away, caught him round the 
body, whirled him in the air as though he had been 
a child, and dashed him to the ground head down- 
ward. 

The man lay unconscious and apparently lifeless. 
Everyone thought that his neck was broken. It was 

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A Guide to American History 

midnight. Simon thought of a hangman's noose or a 
prison cell, and he fled to the forest, and for eleven 
years not a word was heard of Simon Kenton. 

He went to the wilds of Kentucky and Ohio, be- 
came a companion of Daniel Boone, and within a 
few years was one of the most daring Indian fighters 
in the early history of the country. 

One day he saw some settlers floating down the 
Ohio, and, discovering that they were from his own 
home county in Virginia, began asking them ques- 
tions about this and that family, and at length about 
the Kentons. 

^' The Kentons? Yes, we know them. They are 
excellent people, but they are old and poor now. 
Their son ran away from home many years ago and 
they have never been the same since. He thought 
he had killed a man, but the man got well. The peo- 
ple round there think Kenton was not to blame." 

Kenton became excited as he listened to this 
speech. He exclaimed: ^^ I am Simon Kenton. I 
thank God that my father and mother are still alive 
and that I am not a murderer." 

Soon after this Simon made a journey to the home 
of his childhood to comfort and aid his aged parents. 
He seemed to them as one risen from the dead. 

!Not long, however, could he remain in so quiet a 
place, l^othing could satisfy his roving spirit but 
the wild life, the unrestrained freedom of the wilder- 
ness. We soon find him again on the banks of the 
Ohio. 

A few only of the adventures of Simon Kenton 

106 



Settlement of the Ohio Valley 

among the Indians can be given in this narrative. It 
was the time of the Revolution, and as the Indians 
had nearly all sided with the English the American 
pioneers felt justified in killing them when they 
could. 

On one occasion Kenton and two other scouts 
named Clark and Montgomery went to spy on an 
Indian village near the Little Miami River, as the 
whites intended to make a raid on the village. They 
crept up at night and found out just what they had 
come to discover. They were ready to start back 
when the temptation to steal some horses became too 
strong to be resisted. They took seven or eight 
horses — all the village had — and set out for Ken- 
tucky. In the morning the Indians missed the horses 
and started afoot on the trail. For two days and 
nights the race kept up, the Indians only a few hours 
behind. When Kenton and his companions reached 
the Ohio they found it high and threatening, and the 
horses refused to enter the water. Ko amount of 
urging could avail, and the three men encamped for 
the night. 

Next morning at daybreak they were greeted by 
a volley of rifle shots from the near-by thicket. The 
Indians were upon them. Montgomery was shot 
dead on the spot, Clark escaped, and Kenton was 
taken prisoner. Great was the joy of the savages in 
capturing Kenton. They knew him as a dangerous 
man and this was not his first offense as a horse thief. 

They tied him on the back of a wild, vicious colt 
and drove it, without a bridle, through the forest 

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A Guide to American History 

before them. Kenton's face was soon a mass of blood ^ 
from the scratchings of the branches of trees. He 
was taken to Old Chillicothe, a famous Indian town. 
Here he received every demonstration of rage and 
hatred, for no one in all the Ohio Valley was better 
known or more hated than Kenton. They tied him 
to a stake intending to burn him to death. But as a 
kitten toys with a mouse before killing it, the In- 
dians refrained from applying the torch and spent 
the night in torturing him. They pelted him with 
stones, lashed him with whips, and burned him with 
hot irons. Next morning he was unbound and made 
to run the gantlet. 

The Indians, men, women, and children, arranged 
themselves in two lines each armed with a club, a 
tomahawk, or hatchet, and, as the pioneer ran be- 
tween the lines, each one would strike at him. When 
Kenton reached the end of the line he fell uncon- 
scious and was carried to a cabin and thrown into a 
corner. 

When the Indians discovered that he was not dead 
they decided to defer his execution, and, in a spirit 
of brotherly kindness, to loan him to other towns. 
They had not had such fun in many a day, and a 
good thing ought to be passed around. 

Kenton was taken to the various villages and ac- 
tually ran the gantlet seven times and yet escaped 
with his life. Three or four times he was tied to the 
stake to be burned, but in each instance something 
changed the intention of the savages. At length an 
Englishman requested that Kenton be given over to 

108 



Settlement of the Ohio Valley 

him that he might be taken to the British commander 
at Detroit. This the Indians agreed to only on the 
condition that he be sent back. The Englishman 
promised, but did not keep his word. Kenton re- 
mained at Detroit over winter — the same winter that 
Washington spent at Valley Forge. 

In the summer, his wounds having healed, he 
planned with two captive Kentuckians to escape. 
With great adroitness they secured three guns 
and some ammunition and escaped in the night. 
Thirty days later, after many daring adventures, 
they appeared at Louisville, Ky. 

Again Kenton engaged in his occupation of hunt- 
ing Indians. And a few days later he was again 
taken captive. On this occasion he gained his free- 
dom in a curious way. 

When at Detroit some years before an English 
officer had presented him with a lens or sunglass 
with which to light his pipe, and Kenton always car- 
ried it with him. Now when he was bound to the 
stake, and it seemed that he must surely die, a new 
idea occurred to him. He knew of the great super- 
stition of the Indians and determined to make 
the most of it. As a last request he begged that he 
might smoke his pipe a few minutes before death. 
The request was granted, and when an Indian 
brought him fire to light his pipe Kenton waved him 
off, saying: " I^o, I will call upon the sun." 

He then held the glass to the sun and lit the pipe. 
The Indians were astonished, and when their pris- 
oner made motions to the sun and set fire to the 

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A Guide to American History 

leaves they were beside themselves with amazement. 
Kenton then called the chief to come instantly and 
unbind his ankles. The Indian could not disobey such 
a man. He loosed the thongs, and while doing so 
Kenton burned a blister on his wrist. Kenton now 
hinted that he would call upon the sun to destroy 
them if they did not flee to the forest. A few min- 
utes later he was alone, a free man. 

We have only touched in these pages upon the re- 
markable career of Simon Kenton. He lived to fight 
through the War of 1812, and in his old age Con- 
gress granted him a pension. He became a member 
of the Church and died a devout Christian in 1836, 
at the age of eighty-one years. 

The Story of Rufus Putnam 

General Rufus Putnam has been called the 
" Father of Ohio." He was the founder of the first 
permanent white settlement in that State — at Mari- 
etta, in 1788. 

General Putnam was a very interesting figure in 

our early history. He and his cousin. General Israel 
Putnam, served through the French and Indian War 
and the Revolution. 

Rufus was left an orphan at an early age, and his 
education was sadly neglected. When an old man 
he wrote for his children the story of his life with 
his own hand. This writing still exists, and here I 
shall give a page or two from it, with the language 
and spelling exactly as he made it. 

110 



Settlement of the Ohio Valley 

" I am the youngest Son of Elisha Putnam, who 
was the third Son of Edward, grandson of John Put- 
nam, who settled at Salem in 1634 — My Mother's 
Maiden name was Susanna Puller, daughter of Jona- 
than Puller of Danvers — 

" I was born on the 9th of April 1738, at Sutton in 
Massachusetts in 1745 at the age of Seven Years and 
two months, I became an orphan by the death of my 
Pather. Prom his death to September 1747 I lived 
with my grandfather Puller, to this time I was 
keept at School as much as Children usually were at 
that day, and could read pritty well in the bible — 

" In September 1747 I went to live with my Step 
Pather, Capt. John Sadler (at Upton) and continued 
with him untill his death (in September or October 
1753) 

" during the six year I lived with Capt. Sadler, I 
never Saw the inside of a School house, except about 
three weeks, he was very illiterate himself, and took 
no Care for the education of his family, but this was 
not all I was a ridicule of, and otherwise abused for 
my attention to books, and attempting to write, and 
learn Arethmatic, however, amidst all those discour- 
agements I made Some advances in writeing and 
Arethmatic, that is I could make Letters that could 
be under stood, and had gon as far in Arethmatic as 
to work the rule of three (without any teacher but 
the book) — Oh, my Children beware you neglect not 
the education of any under Your Care as I was neg- 
lected. — 

" In March 1754 I was bound apprentice To Dan- 
Ill 



A Guide to American History 

iel Matthews of Brookfield to tlie Millwights trade; 
by him my education was as much neglected, as by 
Capt. Sadler, except that he did not deny me the use 
of a Light for Study in the winter evenings. I 
turned my attention Chiefly to Arethmatic, Geog- 
rapty, and history; had I ben as much engaged in 
Learning to write well with Spelling, and Gramer, 
I might have ben much better qualified to fulfill the 
duties of the Succeeding Scenes of Life, which In 
providence I have ben called to pass through. I 
was zealous to obtain knowledge, but having no 
Course to pursue, — hence neglecting Spelling and 
Gramer when young I have Suffered much through 
life on that account." 

Further on the writer states that while he was liv- 
ing with his stepfather he earned a few pennies now 
and then by watering horses for travelers, and that 
with them he bought ammunition. He then shot 
quail, sold them and with the proceeds purchased a 
spelling book and an arithmetic — so great was his 
desire to learn. 

At the close of the Revolution Congress was un- 
able to pay many of the soldiers for their services. 
It was suggested, therefore, that they be paid in land 
along the Ohio River. Rufus Putnam became great- 
ly interested in this subject, and he was the first to 
offer his services in leading a band of settlers to the 
valley of the Beautiful River. 

One night he and his friend, Benjamin Tupper, sat 
up all night making plans for a western settlement. 

112 



Settlement of the Ohio Valley 

They decided to call a meeting at the tavern known 
as the Bunch of Grapes, in Boston. At this meeting, 
held in March, 1786, a new Ohio company was 
formed. One of the directors of this company, the 
Rev. Manasseh Cutler, preacher, lawyer, doctor, and 
statesman all in one, was chosen to carry their proj- 
ect before Congress. This he did, and the result was 
the famous Ordinance of 1787 for the government 
of the E^orthwest Territory. He also obtained a 
land grant for the new company in southeastern 
Ohio. 

The following year Putnam gathered together a 
number of people who were willing to seek their 
fortunes in the West. They started for their new 
home in the winter so as to be ready to plant crops 
in the early spring. Over the snowy Alleghanies 
they made their way on sleds and moving wagons. 
For the women and children it was a dreary winter 
indeed, but most of the men had been in the war and 
were acquainted with exposure and hardship. Some 
of them had spent the winter at Valley Forge, some 
had been in the famous march to Yorktown. 

Reaching a point on the Youghiogheny near Pitts- 
burg they encamped for the remainder of the win- 
ter and the men fell to building a boat so as to make 
the rest of the journey by water. Soon they had a 
little bark forty feet long, which they named the 
Mayflower, after the more famous vessel of the Pil- 
grim Fathers. 

On the first day of April Putnam and his little 
band embarked on the river. This part of the jour- 

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A Guide to American History 

ney was delightful. The green hills and bursting 
buds betokened the opening of spring, and the pil- 
grims sang and shouted for joj as their little boat 
glided down the blue waves of the Ohio. 

They reached the mouth of the Muskingum on 
April 7 J 1788, and here was to be their home. Three 
years before, Fort Harmar had been built here and 
its little garrison would be a protection to the new 
settlement. The number of people landed from the 
Mayflower was forty-eight. The men were soon busy 
felling trees and building a blockhouse on one of 
the huge Indian mounds near the river. In this the 
women and children were to be sheltered until homes 
could be built. The men were strong and used to 
the woods, and in one week after they landed four 
acres had been cleared, and by the first of June 150 
acres were planted in corn. Log cabins rose among 
the trees and the families were soon settled in them. 
The men held meetings for political purposes in a 
large tent which they brought from the East, and 
which had been captured from the British at the 
time of Burgoyne's surrender. 

Wild game there was in abundance, and this was 
the chief food of the new colony. 

A town was laid out east of the mouth of the 
Muskingum and was named Marietta, in honor 
of the Queen of France, Marie Antoinette, in recog- 
nition of what France had done for us in the Revo- 
lution. 

Seldom anywhere has a colony been so happily 
founded as that at Marietta. Every member enjoyed 

114 



1 



Settlement of the Ohio Valley 

good health and there was not a lawbreaker among 
them. Others came from the East, and in a few 
years Marietta was a prosperous village of several 
hundred inhabitants. 

General Rufus Putnam lived to be very old — 
lived to see the Ohio Valley settled by hundreds of 
thousands of people — and to the day of his death he 
was one of the prominent men of the great valley, 
honored and loved by all. He was one of the first 
trustees of the Ohio University at Athens; he helped 
form the first constitution of Ohio; he was the foun- 
der of the first Sunday school west of the Alleghany 
Mountains. This last came about through a dream. 

Putnam dreamed that he was standing in a large 
public hall when he saw near him a long procession 
of children. Asking a bystander what it meant, he 
was answered, ^^These are the children of the Sun- 
day schooL" This was in 1817, and before the year 
was past Putnam had founded a Sunday school. Two 
others were founded within a year, and one day the 
three schools were joined together for a picnic, and 
as the children marched singing to the banks of the 
Muskingum, Putnam looked on and with tears in his 
eyes exclaimed, " This is the fulfillment of my 
dream.'' 

Another story related of Putnam is the following : 
One evening in the year 1812 some missionaries 
from E'ew England, on their way to the Indian coun- 
try, stopped their boat at Marietta to spend the 
night with a friend, William Slocomb, who lived in 
the town. While there they expressed a desire to 

115 



A Guide to American History 

see General Putnam, of whom they had heard so 
much. 

Mr. Slocomb went with them to his house, where 
they were graciously received. In the course of con- 
versation the general asked: "Have you plenty of 
fresh meat for your journey? " They confessed they 
had none. Putnam then turned to Mr. Slocomb and 
said: 

" iTow I see through the whole mystery. I have 
an ox that has been fattening for a year, and for sev- 
eral months I have tried to sell him, but could not. 
I now understand the reason: The Lord has designed 
him for this mission family. I will have him killed 
and dressed by eight in the morning, and do you have 
barrels and salt ready at the boat for packing what 
cannot be used fresh." And it was done as he di- 
rected. 

Putnam died in 1824 at the ripe age of eighty-six. 
He will ever be remembered as the founder of a com- 
monwealth, as one of the most worthy among the 
nation builders. 

The Romance of Western Migration 

Within a few years after the founding of Marietta 
the fever for moving westward spread over the At- 
lantic States like an epidemic. Reports from those 
who had settled in the Ohio Valley were glowing 
with enthusiasm. The thin soil of ]^ew England was 
contrasted with the soil of Ohio, where " corn grew 
so tall that a man had to reach up, instead of do^vn, 

IIG 



Settlement of the Ohio Valley 

to pick an ear from the stalk," where wild game was 
still plentiful, and where land could be purchased for 
little money. 

The tide of emigration was soon in motion, and 
farther south there was a similar movement to Ken- 
tucky, Tennessee, and the cotton fields of Alabama 
and Mississippi. 

It must be remembered that there were no rail- 
roads, and the wagon roads in many sections were 
little other than the old Indian trails somewhat im- 
proved. The journey from New England was long 
and laborious indeed, requiring many weeks, and the 
majority of the movers never again saw nor expected 
to see their friends and kindred whom they left 
behind. 

The canvas-covered moving wagon was the usual 
vehicle. A farmer, having sold all his goods which 
he could not take with him, would load the remainder 
on the wagon, leaving room for himself and his fam- 
ily, and start on the long journey through the wilder- 
ness. At night they would sleep in the wagon, after 
having eaten their supper, which was prepared over 
a camp fire. 

The journey, however, was not so lonely as one 
might imagine. There were many movers. During 
the height of migration (the years following the War 
of 1812) the main roads were literally strung with 
movers, and there was scarcely an hour in the day 
that several wagons did not pass a given point. At 
Easton, Pa., 511 wagons bearing 3,000 people passed 
in one month. At Zanesville, Ohio, fifty wagons, 

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A Guide to American History 

going farther West crossed the Muskingum in one 
day. 

But many of the movers were too poor to afford 
wagons, and they walked. A man from Rhode Island 
and his twelve-year-old son pulled a little cart with 
two younger children in it, while his wife, carrying 
a baby, with seven other children, walked behind. 
In this way they tramped several hundred miles. 
One man is said to have pushed a wheelbarrow from 
the Atlantic Coast to Ohio, his wife and children 
trudging behind him. 

Movers to points along the Ohio usually went by 
way of Pittsburg and from there took the easier 
method, the water route. As in the case of Rufus 
Putnam and his pilgrims in the Mayflower^ they 
floated down the Ohio, in flatboats and various sorts 
of river craft, to the place of their destination. 

Life in the Wilderness 

The early settlements in many places went through 
two or three stages. First came the Indian hunter 
and trader — such men as Daniel Boone and Simon 
Kenton — who made no pretense of settling at any 
particular place. 

Next came the squatter, who lived in the forest 
because he loved it, and because he did not enjoy the 
surroundings of civilized life. He may or may not 
have had a wife and family. Finding a place that 
pleased him, he would make it his temporary home. 
He had a few tools and household goods. He lived 

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1 



Settlement of the Ohio Valley 

chiefly by hunting and fishing, but perhaps cleared 
an acre or two of ground and raised a little corn and 
vegetables. His clothing was made of the skins of 
wild animals. But he had no title to the land, and 
when the real settlers came he gave up his home and 
pushed farther into the forest. Neither this class 
nor the first mentioned was very numerous. 

The third class became the real settlers of the 
country — those that we have noticed in such num- 
bers in the moving wagons. These were the men 
that built the commonwealths. They were not, like 
the trader and the squatter, trying to flee from civil- 
ization; they brought it with them and fostered it 
in every way. 

They purchased their lands of the Government, 
or of some land company, paying two or three dollars 
an acre for it on the installment plan. Then came 
the long journey in the moving wagon. 

The first year in the new home is a hard one. The 
settler begins clearing the land and building a cabin, 
the family still making the moving wagon their 
sleeping place. The cabin is built of logs notched at 
the ends, is about ten feet in height, with a roof of 
clapboards and a plank floor. There is one door and 
one window. The door is of rough boards, hung on 
leather hinges, and opposite the door is a great open 
fireplace, the chimney being built on the outside with 
lath, plastered with mortar. The windowpanes are 
not glass but greased paper. 

The pioneer farmer clears several new acres each 
year. He calls his neighbors for miles around to 

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A Guide to American History 

his '^ logrollings " and repays them by a similar 
service. Great quantities of good timber are burned 
because the farmer cannot use nor sell it. 

As the years pass other settlers come in; a school- 
house and church are built; a town is laid out and 
a railroad is constructed. In a quarter of a century 
the whole community is transformed and the wilder- 
ness comes to blossom as the rose. 

The old settler has added hundreds of acres to his 
original farm; his children settle on the farm, or 
enter the business or professional world. He spends 
the evening of his days amid peace and plenty, and 
he gathers his grandchildren about him and tells 
them of the days of long ago when he made the long 
journey in the moving wagon, and when the wolves 
howled around his lonely cabin in the wilderness. 

We must not think for a moment that pioneer life 
was all toil and hardship. The pioneers had a way 
of being happy without the many comforts that we 
enjoy. They often turned work into play. For ex- 
ample, the logrolling day was made a day of fun 
and frolic. Men and boys for miles around would 
gather, each with a " handspike," and as they piled 
the logs and set fire to them they would sing and 
halloo till the woods rang, and often the women and 
girls would gather at the same home on the same day 
and spend the time quilting and making the meals 
for the logrollers. After supper the young people 
would play games till far into the night. But log- 
rolling was not the only attraction. There were 
the sugar-makings in the spring, the apple-parings 

120 



Settlement of the Ohio Valley 

and corn-huskings in the fall, at which the young 
people would come together and spend the night in 
merrymaking. 

Home life on the frontier was not without its at- 
tractions. A family was usually large and each 
member appreciated the companionship of the others. 
Sometimes the whole family, parents as well as chil- 
dren, would go to the woods and spend the day gath- 
ering nuts. They ate their dinner on the grass under 
some big shade tree. At evening they returned with 
bags and baskets filled with rich hickory nuts, chest- 
nuts, hazelnuts and beechnuts. 

During the long winter evenings the family sat 
around the great fireplace, the younger children sit- 
ting on the floor playing with their toys, the older 
ones reading, plaiting husk mats, or cracking nuts 
and telling stories, the father mending shoes or har- 
ness, the mother spinning flax, and the grandmother 
(if they were so fortunate as to have a grandmother) 
knitting stockings. Sometimes the stillness from 
without was broken by the shriek of some wild crea- 
ture in the forest, and the family clung closer to- 
gether and thanked the Lord for the protection of 
their cabin. 

For two or three months in winter the children at- 
tended school, some of them having two or three 
miles to go to the log schoolhouse. 

One of the finest and most prosperous cities of the 
Central West is Indianapolis. The first schoolhouse 
built in that city, about 1820, was of unhewn logs 
with a great fireplace at one side. It had one long 

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A Guide to American History 

window, a log being removed for the opening and 
greased paper used instead of glass. The desks 
were made of heavy planks and the seats of large 
saplings split in halves, with wooden legs. 

School-teachers were few, and some of them knew 
less than fifth-grade pupils know now. Sometimes 
the schoolhouse was vacant all winter for want of a 
teacher, and sometimes there were but three or four 
weeks of school. 

The schools were not free, as now. Each pupil 
had to pay two or three dollars a quarter as tuition, 
and in this way the teacher was paid for his services. 
If a patron could not pay in money the teacher would 
sometimes accept corn or poultry or 'coon skins as 
tuition. Indeed, in some places on the frontier 
money was so scarce that other things passed as 
money. 

In Tennessee, while that State was still a Terri- 
tory, the legislature made a very curious law about 
money. There was very little real money in Tennes- 
see, not enough to do business with, and a law was 
passed that other things be used as money. For ex- 
ample, a pound of sugar must pass for a shilling, and 
a raccoon skin or fox skin for a shilling and three- 
pence. Two fox or 'coon skins equaled a gallon of 
rye whisky. One gallon of peach brandy equaled 
one yard of linen, or three shillings. The highest 
denomination was the beaver, the otter, or the deer 
skin, which passed for six shillings each. It was not 
stated what the skin of a wild cat or a bear was 
worth. 

122 



n 

1 



Settlement of the Ohio Valley 

The governor, all public officers, and school-teach- 
ers had to be paid in this money. 

The soft money was kept in large jugs and the 
hard money in wooden boxes, and to save opening the 
box to count the money every time it changed hands, 
the tail of each coin was left sticking out from under 
the lid. Sometimes a counterfeiter would fill a box 
with 'coon skins having otter's tails tacked on them, 
and thus deceive the unwary. 



123 



CHAPTEK X 

SOME INCIDENTS OF THE SECOND WAR WITH 

ENGLAND 

WE have had two wars with England, the Kevo- 
lution and the War of 1812, so called because 
it began that year. Frequently since 1812 we have 
had serious disputes with that country, but without 
coming to blows, and it is the sincerest hope of every 
true American and every true Briton that never 
again will the two nations engage in war with each 
other. 

Perhaps there are still a few Americans who 
would like to see the United States give the British 
one good thrashing for the way they treated us in 
the past, and then settle down to permanent peace; 
but I think they are very few. It would be a crime 
against civilization for these two mighty English- 
speaking nations ever again to engage in war. Their 
disputes and differences should be settled by arbitra- 
tion, that is, by conferring and agreeing to compro- 
mise. If all the nations would adopt such a rule war 
would become a thing of the past. 

Impressment of Seamen 

One of the chief causes of the War of 1812 was 
the impressment of seamen. For a long time Great 

124 



The Second War with England 

Britain was at war with France and many of her 
seamen deserted her ships, because of hard service 
and not very great love for their country. Most of 
them found service in American vessels, and when 
England needed them and called for them to come 
back they refused to do so. 

The British Government then asked the United 
States to give them up that they might be forced to 
go back. But the United States refused to do this, 
because many of them wished to become, and some 
had become, American citizens. America always 
permitted and even encouraged foreigners to come 
to our shores to make this country their home, and 
to become citizens, and it would have been unfair to 
make an exception to these English sailors. But our 
Government did offer to make an agreement to ex- 
change deserters from the navies. 

England refused to agree to this, and declared 
that she would force the men back even if she had 
to take them right off our ships. 

And so the impressment business began. An Eng- 
lish warship would stop an American ship at sea and 
force the whole crew to march before the British 
officers, who would pick out this man and that man, 
pronounce them English deserters, and force them 
into their own ships. 

This occurred a great many times and was kept up 
for many years; and the worst thing about it was 
that an American was often taken by mistake. Per- 
haps the British did not intentionally make this mis- 
take, but they were very careless in picking out their 

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A Guide to American History 

men, and hundreds of Americans who had never been 
in England were impressed into the British navy. 

Our Government protested and cried out against 
the practice, but England seemed to think that we 
were too weak to defend ourselves and went right 
on. One old Revolutionary soldier wrote a bitter 
complaint to Congress, stating that his sons had been 
impressed into the British service and that if such 
was the kind of liberty he had fought for he would 
rather be without it. 

The worst instance of impressment occurred in 
1807, when the British war vessel, the Leopard, fired 
on the American vessel, the Chesa'peake, killing three 
men and wounding eighteen. The captain of the 
Leopard then forced five of the ChesapeaJceh crew 
into his own ship, and three of them afterwards were 
proved to be Americans. 

This outrage was denounced in every part of the 
Union. Many Americans were in favor of imme- 
diate war with England, but President Thomas Jef- 
ferson and Congress did not think we were ready for 
that yet. War is a very serious thing. 

About four years after this the American people 
were treated to a bit of news of a very different na- 
ture. Here it is: 

A British warship, cruising in American waters, 
was said to have impressed an American citizen 
named Diggio. When the people heard that such a 
thing had happened right on our coast they flared 
up in anger. It must be remembered that the 
Americans were getting bolder and more conscious 

126 




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II 



The Second War with England 

of their power to defend themselves. The cruel 
hiisiness had gone on long enough. The Govern- 
ment officers thought so, too, and a huge war vessel, 
the President^ was sent out to find the English ship 
and rescue Diggio. 

The President sighted an English ship, and sup- 
posed it to be the guilty one. But it was evening, and 
the captain of the President , not being able to see 
the name, called through a trumpet, " What ship is 
that? " The answer was a shot from the stranger. 

This opened the way. The President began firing 
in earnest with one broadside after another. The 
strange vessel returned the fire, but in fifteen min- 
utes was silenced and disabled. It proved to be the 
Little Belt, a smaller ship than the President, What 
was the result of the battle ? One boy was slightly 
wounded on the President and twelve men lay dead 
and twenty-one wounded on the deck of the Little 
Belt. The dishonor of the Chesapealce affair had 
been wiped out, and the American people rejoiced 
over the event. 

This was about the end of the impressment of 
seamen. The war soon came, and never since that 
war has England attempted to impress a man from 
an American ship, and we venture to predict that 
she never will. 

The Two Hulls 

Hull the elder was an uncle of Hull the younger. 
The elder Hull was a man of sixty; the younger was 
forty. Each played a prominent part in the War 

127 



A Guide to American History 

of 1812. One was a brigadier general, the other 
was captain of a warship. 

General William Hull had been an officer in the 
Revolution, and after 1805 was governor of the Ter- 
ritory of Michigan. When the war came President 
Madison made him commander of the American 
forces at Detroit. He did not desire the honor, but 
accepted it to please the President. 

'Now it happened that the British commander 
in Canada was a man of great vigor and ability. 
This was General Isaac Brock. When Brock heard 
that Hull was at Detroit he determined to lead 
an army thither and attack him. On he came 
with an army of 1,300, nearly half of whom were 
Indians. 

In the war of the Revolution General Hull had 
been a brave soldier, but now his courage began to 
fail. He knew that the food in the fort could not 
last more than a month, that the woods were full of 
hostile Indians, and that there was no American 
force within hundreds of miles to come to his aid. 
Perhaps he would have cared little for his own life, 
but there were women and children in the fort, and 
among them was his own daughter. 

Hull sat with his back against a rampart in deep 
dejection. Then suddenly a cannon ball from a Brit- 
ish battery fell in the fort and killed four men. 
Hull's courage was now entirely gone. He raised a 
white flag, and General Brock took possession of 
Detroit and all Michigan. We shall see a little later 
that England was not destined to keep ]\Iichigan and 

128 



The Second War with England 

add it to Canada, and how it was recovered by the 
United States. 

The story of the other Hull is far more pleasing to 
American readers. 

Captain Isaac Hull commanded the ConstitutioUy 
one of our finest warships. 

Off the Atlantic coast there were many English 
vessels. One of them was the Guerriere, a fine 38-gun 
frigate. A London paper had boasted that no Amer- 
ican ship could cope with the Guerriere, and her 
own captain had challenged any one of our vessels 
to a duel. 

Captain Hull knew about this and was quite will- 
ing to accept the challenge. One day while cruising 
in the Atlantic, about 800 miles east of Boston, he 
sighted the Guerriere, and each vessel recognized the 
other as a mortal foe, and here upon the rolling deep 
they prepared for a duel to the death. 

The vessels swung round each other till they came 
within range of the heavy guns, when both opened 
with broadsides. For nearly an hour the deadly con- 
flict raged. The British vessel suffered far more 
than the American. At last when her mainmast fell 
and she was a helpless wreck, her captain gave up 
the contest and surrendered the vessel. Seventy-nine 
of his men had fallen and only fourteen Americans. 
Captain Hull took the surviving British to his own 
ship as prisoners, set fire to the Guerriere, and sailed 
for Boston. This fight took place on August 19, 
1812, just three days after Captain Hull's unhappy 
uncle had surrendered Detroit. 

129 



A Guide to American History 

A few weeks later, while a great banquet was be- 
ing held in Boston in honor of Captain Hull, a mes- 
senger entered the hall with a British flag in his 
hand, and great was the excitement of the people 
when they found that he was a messenger from Com- 
modore Decatur, who sent to tell of the capture of 
a fine English vessel by him, in a fight similar to 
that between the Constitution and the Guerriere. 



Perry's Victory on Lake Erie 

One day in the autumn of 1812 a man from Erie, 
Pa., named Daniel Dobbins, came to the White 
House in Washington to speak to the President on a 
very important matter. His story was the following: 

In the spring of the same year he and two friends, 
being engaged in the lake trade, made a voyage far 
up into the lake region and were captured by the 
British. As they were being brought from the north 
they witnessed a scene never to be forgotten — noth- 
ing less than the surrender of Detroit and all Michi- 
gan to an army of British and Indians, the Ameri- 
cans under General William Hull yielding without 
firing a gun. 

A little later he and his friends had escaped and 
returned to Erie, whereupon the commanding offi- 
cer there had sent him to relate the matter to the 
President and to suggest that a fleet be built to sweep 
the British from the lakes. 

Daniel Dobbins returned to Erie a few weeks later, 
and the building of the fleet was begun. The com- 

130 



The Second War with England 

mander chosen for it was a young naval officer, a 
native of Rhode Island, who, being a son of a naval 
officer, had spent much of his life on the sea — Oliver 
Hazard Perry. 

Perry soon made things move at Erie, but the task 
before him was a hard one. The timber for the 
ships was still standing in the woods; the guns, the 
cordage, the canvas, and other equipments had to be 
dragged on sleds through the deep snow for hun- 
dreds of miles from 'New York, Philadelphia, and 
Pittsburg. Fifty ship carpenters were brought from 
the East. The work was pushed day and night and 
by the next summer the new-born fleet was ready for 
service. 

There was on Lake Erie a small British fleet com- 
manded by Commodore Barclay, a brave officer who 
had fought under IN^elson at Trafalgar. He would 
have destroyed Perry's ships unfinished, but for a 
bar in the lake where the water was too shallow for 
him to cross. But this he would do : he would watch 
until Perry finished his fleet and came out in the 
open lake and then attack him. He waited and 
waited; but one Sunday in August he accepted an in- 
vitation to spend the day with a rich Canadian, and 
was absent two or three days. During that time 
Perry, with Herculean effort, succeeded in crossing 
the bar, swung out into the lake and stood ready to 
meet the enemy. 

When Barclay found out what had happened he 
seemed to have changed his mind; he fled westward, 
and it took Perry a month to find him. But he did 

131 



A Guide to American History 

find him — on September 10, 1813 — and then was 
fought the famous battle of Lake Erie. 

The battle began at noon, and before sunset of that 
day the British had no fleet on Lake Erie. 

At first it seemed that the English would 'vvin. 
Perry in his flagship, the Lawrence, had to fight four 
of the enemy's vessels at the same time. They were 
all much crippled; but the noble Lawrence was en- 
tirely disabled. Of her crew of 103 men, 83 lay 
dead or wounded on the deck. Her rigging was shot 
to pieces. Perry fired the last gun with his own 
hand, and then, with his young brother, but twelve 
years old, and a few sailors, escaped in an open boat 
to the next largest vessel, the Niagara. This ship 
was uninjured, while most of the British ships were 
already badly crippled, and Perry sailed among them 
attacking them right and left with great fury. 

About three o'clock the British raised the white 
flag and surrendered, and the battle of Lake Erie was 
over. 

Before the smoke of battle had cleared away Perry 
sat down and wrote the famous dispatch to General 
William Henry Harrison, who was then commanding 
in northern Ohio. 

" We have met the enemy and they are ours." 

This battle did great things for America. It gave 
us the control of the lakes and opened the way for 
the recovery of Michigan, which soon followed ; it 
greatly encouraged the people and awakened in them 
a determination to continue the war until the last 

132 




!— I 

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O 

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02 



ID 



The Second War with England 

foe was driven off, and it did one thing more; it 
made Oliver Hazard Perry a national hero and gave 
him an immortal name in American history. 



A Famous Victory 

The war continued imtil the close of the year 
1814, about two and a half years in all. As we have 
noticed, Michigan was recovered through Perry^s vic- 
tory on Lake Erie. 

At Queenstown Heights, on the Niagara River, a 
hard battle was fought in which the American gen- 
eral, Winfield Scott, was taken prisoner and the 
brave British commander, General Brock, was killed. 
The British captured and partly burned the Ameri- 
can capital, but were repulsed before Baltimore. 

When the war had dragged on for more than two 
years and neither side was gaining any great advan- 
tage, both desired peace, and commissioners were 
sent by each country to Ghent, Belgium, to arrange 
a treaty. 

Why the British should have sent a great fleet with 
20,000 men to the Gulf of Mexico at the same time 
that they sent men to Ghent to make peace is not 
easy to understand : but that is just what they did. 
E[ow this army succeeded, or rather how it failed, we 
shall see. 

The British army was commanded by General 
Pakenham, a brother-in-law of the Duke of Welling- 
ton, the hero of Waterloo. 

The people of New Orleans were in a flutter of 

133 



A Guide to American History 

excitement and fear when they learned that Paken- 
ham was in the gulf and was hastening toward their 
city. Few were the soldiers of the city, and not a 
man there to command an army. But the news soon 
spread that General Jackson had come, and there 
was a quick change in the people. 

Jackson — you will remember him as the boy An- 
drew who was captured in time of the Revolution, 
and who walked forty miles while suffering with 
the smallpox — Jackson was a man of prodigious en- 
ergy. He soon had the city in a condition for de- 
fense. A small army of about 3,500 men were soon 
gathered, and it was time, for the British were 
coming. 

On the morning of January 8th the great battle 
of New Orleans was fought. Jackson had thrown 
up an embankment a mile long and his men fought 
from behind it. 

At break of day the scarlet line of the British 
was seen advancing, and the Americans held their 
fire until the enemy was within range of the can- 
non. Then burst forth the terrific roar of artillery 
and the enemy was mowed do^vn like grass before 
the reaper's scythe. But the gaps were filled with 
living men, and on they came again and still again. 

When the British came within musket range the 
infantry opened, and the w^hole American breastwork 
was a line of fire. 

General Pakenham, seeing his men waver, rode to 
the front and, waving his hat in the air, cried : " Por 
shame, remember that you are British soldiers." 

134 



The Second War with England 

His right arm was shattered by a musket ball, but he 
kept on cheering his men. Next moment he was 
pierced through the body by two bullets, and at the 
same time his horse was killed by a bursting shell. 
Rider and horse fell together. The falling corctman- 
der was caught by loving hands and borne to the 
rear, and a few minutes later he was dead. 

The British soon fled. The battle was over and 
the city was saved. Seldom has an army received so 
fearful a defeat as the English received on that day. 
Their loss was about 2,600 while the American loss 
was next to nothing — about twenty-one men. 

A few days after the battle the British (what was 
left of them) went back to their ships and sailed 
away and were seen no more on the shores of Louisi- 
ana. The city of IN'ew Orleans rejoiced exceedingly 
over the great victory. The people erected a trium- 
phal arch in the public square and received Jackson 
and his army with great enthusiasm. 

Among the many incidents of the battle one of the 
most touching was that of the little bugler. A boy 
of fourteen years, on the British side, was a bugler, 
that is, one who blows a bugle during the battle to 
cheer the soldiers. This boy climbed a tree and sat 
among the branches throughout the battle blowing his 
horn. The ground around the tree was torn with 
cannon balls and bullets; the branches were shot 
off near him, but the lad was unhurt. After the 
battle he was taken to the American camp, where he 
was shown every kindness, some throwing their arms 
around the gallant little soldier. 

135 



A Guide to American History 

A strange thing occurred after the battle. As the 
Americans were walking over the ground offering 
aid to the wounded, several hundred British soldiers 
rose up unhurt from among the dead and wounded. 
They explained that when they saw that they had 
no hope of winning they dropped down, pretending 
to be dead, and thus saved their lives. 

The one regrettable thing about the battle of 'New 
Orleans was that it was unnecessary, and all the 
bloodshed might have been prevented. The treaty 
of peace was signed in Belgium three weeks before 
the battle took place. But there was no Atlantic 
cable and no telegraph, and several weeks must pass 
before the news of the peace could be known in 
America. The British, however, could blame only 
themselves for this drastic defeat. They should not 
have sent an army to America at a time when peace 
negotiations were going on. 

The War of 1812 was over, and the American peo- 
ple felt no little pride in the fact that they had at 
least held their own for two and a half years against 
one of the greatest nations of the earth. Never after 
this did Great Britain attempt to impress American 
seamen. Never after this was it a reproach to be an 
American, for America henceforth was respected by 
all nations. 



136 



CHAPTER XI 

IMPROVEMENT IN TRANSPORTATION 

OlSTE of the greatest of man's civilizing forces is 
the means of travel and transportation. What 
would it mean to us if there were no railroads con- 
necting the Atlantic States with the vast valley of 
the Mississippi and the far-off Pacific Coast? How 
could we get along without steam navigation on 
river, lake, and ocean, to say nothing of the bicycle, 
the automobile, and the electric car? 

Such was the condition one hundred years ago. 
And it is a strange fact that there was almost no im- 
provement in the means of transportation for two 
thousand years before the year 1800. All our won- 
derful progress has come in the past hundred years. 

The Pirst Road Makers 

In colonial days the country roads were usually 
along the lines of the Indian trails, and the Indians 
had in many cases followed the paths made by the 
buffaloes. The buffalo was therefore our first road 
maker. 

When the white man came he drove out the buf- 
faloes and the Indians and adopted their beaten 

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A Guide to American History 

paths as his roads. Many of our country roads to- 
day were first buffalo paths, then Indian trails, 
through the forests. The white man had an ax, a 
tool that neither the Indian nor the buffalo had used. 
With this he widened the road, first for the horse- 
back rider and then for the wagon. 

!N^ow imagine that you are carried back to the 
time of the French and Indian War, or before, and 
you wish to travel from New York to Boston. You 
get into an old-time stagecoach, with a number of 
other passengers. Your trunk is fastened on top of 
the coach. The seats are probably without backs. 
The horses are so jaded and worn that you feel that 
you ought to get out and help them pull their load. 
The harness is made of twisted rope. 

At three o'clock in the morning a bugle blast from 
the driver's horn warns you that he is ready to start. 
The road is rough with stumps of trees and bowlders. 
Now and then the coach sticks in a quagmire and you 
must get out and help lift it. 

After eighteen hours of such hardship you are put 
down at an inn or tavern. The fare here is not what 
you would find at a third-rate hotel of to-day. It is 
doubtful if you will have a separate room in which 
to spend the night. The room is probably a large 
one with half a dozen beds, and you take your 
chance among the rest. Five or six days are re- 
quired for the journey between the two cities. 

The coming of the stagecoach was quite an event 
in the villages through which it passed. The people 
of the towns and country had little to divert them 

138 



Improvement in Transportation 

from the monotonous life of the forest, and men, 
women, and children would gather to see the stage 
come in, to hear the latest news, and to get a glimpse 
of the strangers who were passing through. 

As the years passed the roads were made better, 
and at length turnpikes were constructed, at first be- 
tween the big cities, and later across the Alleghanies 
to the Ohio Valley. The Cumberland Road, often 
called the ]N'ational Pike, from Washington to Van- 
dalia, Illinois, cost millions of dollars, and was more 
than thirty years in building. It was completed in 
1838. There are now hundreds of miles of turnpikes 
in various parts of the country, but a vast number of 
country roads are still very much in need of im- 
provement. 

Coming of the Steamboat 

The great routes of transportation before the Rev- 
olution were the rivers and bays. But for these the 
people would have seen little of each other and 
would have seemed far apart indeed. However, with 
only sails and oars the progress was slow, and to 
take a cargo up a river was next to impossible. 

For thousands of years sails and oars alone had 
been used, but the nineteenth century was to bring a 
wonderful change. The steam engine had been in- 
vented for thirty or forty years, but not until 1807 
was it successfully used in water navigation. In that 
year Robert Fulton succeeded with the Clermont on 
the Hudson River. It was a clumsy vessel indeed, 

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A Guide to American History 

compared with the splendid river steamers of our 
day ; but the people thought it wonderful. 

When Fulton was ready to launch the Clermont 
thousands of people gathered on the shore to witness 
the strange spectacle, most of them believing that 
the effort would end in failure. The boat, one hun- 
dred and thirty feet in length, moved out into the 
river and ran against the current at the rate of four 
miles an hour. In thirty-four hours it was at Albany, 
one hundred and fifty miles up the river. The Cler- 
mont was described as a " monster moving on the 
waters defying wind and tide, breathing flames and 
smoke." It was said that on some of the vessels met 
by the Clermont the crews were so scared that they 
shrank from the sight and called on Providence to 
protect them from the monster that vomited fire and 
smoke. 

The success of the steamboat was now assured, but 
it was not till after the War of 1812 that they began 
to multiply rapidly. By 1820 there were many 
steamers in Eastern waters — on the Hudson, the 
Delaware, the Ohio, and the Mississippi. 

When the colonists came to America from Europe 
they were usually two or three months on the sea. 
1^0 one then dreamed of the magnificent " ocean 
greyhounds '' that now speed through the waves at 
twenty miles an hour and cross the Atlantic in ^ve 
days. 

The size of ocean vessels has changed even more 
than the speed. Columbus first crossed the Atlantic 
in the Santa Maria, a ship of about ninety tons; 

140 



Improvement in Transportation 

the Welcome that brought William Penn was about 
the same size. Compare them with the Lusitaniay 
recently built in Glasgow, with a displacement of 
forty-five thousand tons and a speed that enables her 
to cross the Atlantic in less than five days. 



Artificial Rivers 

Wonderful were the advantages of navigation by 
steam. Along the seacoast and the rivers it greatly 
reduced freight and passenger rates and cheapened 
all kinds of products of the farm and factory. But 
great numbers of the people did not live on or near 
the seacoast or the rivers. How could these get the 
direct benefit of water navigation ? In one way only 
— by making artificial streams, or canals. 

The first canal in the United States was the Dis- 
mal Swamp Canal, in Virginia and North Carolina. 
It was completed while Washington was President. 
But the real era of canal building did not begin till 
after the War of 1812. 

The most famous and important of all canals in 
this country is the Erie Canal. It connects the Hud- 
son Biver and Lake Erie, and is 363 miles long. It 
was sometimes called " Clinton's Big Ditch," because 
Governor Clinton, of New York, had done so much 
toward constructing it. 

It required the labor of thousands of men for 
eight years to finish the great work. The waters of 
Lake Erie were turned into it, and in October, 1825, 
it was thrown open with a great celebration. 

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A Guide to American History 

A tandem fleet of five boats traversed the whole 
course from Buffalo. There being no telegraph or 
railroad, the news that the fleet had started was car- 
ried in a singular way. There was a line of cannon 
placed a few miles apart, from Buffalo. to New York 
City. The first of these was fired, and as soon as 
the sound reached the next it was fired, and so on 
through the whole course. In an hour and a half 
the news had reached jSTew York City. 

On the fleet there were two eagles, a bear, two 
fawns, two Indian boys, and other things typical of 
the country before the coming of the white man. 
The procession was greeted along the route at every 
town with shouts and music and firing of guns. 
When it reached I^ew York, Governor Clinton 
poured two kegs of water, brought from Lake Erie, 
into the bay and declared that our Mediterranean 
Seas were henceforth in communication with the 
Atlantic Ocean. 

Great was the advantage of the Erie Canal. It 
raised the value of land all along the route, but 
cheapened almost everything else. Hundreds of 
canal boats were soon in service, carrying furniture, 
tools, and salt westward, and returning with loads 
of lumber, grain, and furs. The price of transpor- 
tation fell to one tenth of what it had been before. 
The whole Lake Region was benefited by the Erie 
Canal. Farmers in Ohio and Indiana could buv 
furniture and tools for half what they had cost 
before, and they found a far better market for their 
produce. 

142 



Improvement in Transportation 

Other States were seized with the canal craze, on 
account of the great success of the Erie. Pennsyl- 
vania built a canal from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, 
except for a short distance across the mountains. 
Ohio joined the waters of Lake Erie and the Ohio 
Kiver by a canal from Cleveland to Portsmouth. 
Other States were equally affected by the craze ; but 
while this was at its height another impulse seized 
the people. They found a method of transportation 
far superior to the canal. 

The Railroad 

]^ature had thrown a great mountain barrier be- 
tween the Eastern seaboard and the broad river valley 
of the West. If the country was to hold together 
something must be done to overcome this obstruction 
to trade. To transport heavy goods across the moun- 
tains in wagons was too expensive ; to send them East 
by way of the Ohio, the Mississippi, the gulf and 
the ocean was costly and perilous; to build canals 
across the mountains was next to impossible. The 
answer to the problem came in the building of rail- 
roads. 

A hundred years ago a journey from Philadelphia 
to Columbus, Ohio, meant several weeks of hardship 
in a lumbering stagecoach. Now the journey can be 
made in a luxurious sleeper in twelve hours, with 
the comforts of home. 

The first great railroad of the country, the Balti- 
more and Ohio, was begun on July 4, 1828. In 

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A Guide to American History 

Pennsylvania, in "New York, in South Carolina, and 
other States railroads were soon under construction. 
But the work v/as slow, and in 1830 there were but 
thirty-six miles in the whole country. Five years 
later, however, there were several hundred miles of 
railroad. 

At first the motive power was not the steam en- 
gine, but horses and even sails. In Pennsylvania the 
State built the railroad, and anyone who had a car 
could use it by paying toll. The road from Phila- 
delphia to Columbia, for example, consisted of but 
one track, and there were turnouts or switches, so 
that two cars going in opposite directions could pass. 
But it often happened that they met between the 
turnouts, and then there was a dispute and sometimes 
a fist fight to decide which driver would back his 
load to the switch and let the other pass. There 
was also another source of trouble. A steam en- 
gine would overtake a horse car going in the same 
direction. Sometimes the driver of the car would 
refuse to turn out at the next switch to let the engine 
pass. 

When it was seen that steam engines and horse 
cars could not conveniently be used on the same road, 
a long dispute ensued as to which should be aban- 
doned, and it was finally decided that the horse car 
must be given up. It was later decided that not the 
State, but private companies, should own the rail- 
roads, and nearly all the railroads in the United 
States are now owned by companies. 

After 1840 railroad building was pushed rapidly. 

144 



Improvement in Transportation 

In 1853 New York was connected by rail with 
Chicago, and two years later with St. Louis. In 
1869 the first transcontinental railroad was finished, 
and since then one can travel by this means from 
ocean to ocean — from Boston to San Francisco. 



145 



CHAPTER XII 

ODDS AND ENDS 

THIS chapter will be devoted to a notice of sev- 
eral characters and events of the first half of 
the nineteenth century that are important but prob- 
ably not very well known to the average reader. 

Albert Gallatin 

The majority of Americans of this generation 
know but little of the life of Albert Gallatin, and yet 
he was a very prominent man for a long period in 
American history. He was no doubt the most dis- 
tinguished European-born citizen in the history of 
the country. 

Albert Gallatin was born in Geneva, Switzerland, 
in 1Y61. His people were somewhat prominent and 
possessed some wealth, but both his parents died 
before he was nine years old. He was then put in 
a boarding school, and here he remained till he was 
eighteen. At this time the War of the Revolution 
was going on in America. Albert's grandmother was 
a friend to the Landgrave of Hesse, who was fur- 
nishing soldiers — the Hessians — to the English king 
for the American war. She was anxious that her 

146 



Odds and Ends 

grandson should win military honors, as some of his 
ancestors had done, and applied to the Landgrave 
for a commission for him as an officer in one of the 
regiments to be sent to America. 

When Albert was informed of this he declared, 
^' I will never serve a tyrant," and his grandmother 
gave him a sharp cuff on the ear. 

Albert was of a romantic turn. He had heard 
much of America — of the vast unexplored wilderness 
— and he decided to come to the United States not 
to engage in the war, but to see, to explore, to enjoy 
the wild life, and probably to make the new land his 
home. 

With a young companion as ardent as himself he 
set out and reached Boston in the spring of 1780. 
The first winter they spent among the pines on the 
frontier of Maine, where they tracked the moose 
and explored the streams and lakes to their hearts' 
content. 

One day they came to an inn, and the landlord, 
seeing that they were foreigners, asked: 

" From France, eh ? '' 

"No," answered Gallatin, "we are not from 
France." 

" From Germany ? " 

" :^o." 

" From Spain ? " 
" ISTo, not from Spain." 

"Well, then, where on earth are you from, or 
what are you? " asked the landlord. 
" I am a Swiss," answered Gallatin. 

147 



A Guide to American History 

" A Swiss, a Swiss," said the landlord, " who are 
the Swiss, one of the lost tribes of Israel? " 

The next year young Gallatin taught French in 
Harvard College, and a year later we find him on his 
way to the West. He had heard of the rich lands 
of the Ohio Valley, and thither he bent his steps. 
On the way he spent some months at Richmond, Va., 
and here he made many friends, among whom were 
Patrick Henry, governor of the State, and John 
Marshall, afterwards chief justice of the Supreme 
Court of the United States. 

On coming of age Gallatin received a sum of 
money from his father's estate, and when he reached 
the Ohio he purchased several thousand acres of land 
along that river in Virginia and Pennsylvania. On 
a hill where the view of mountain and valley was 
magnificent he built a house and called the place 
Friendship Hill. But what is a home without a mis- 
tress? Gallatin knew what he was about. He went 
back to Richmond and married a beautiful girl and 
took her to his forest home on Friendship Hill. 

Here amid the beauties that nature had so lav- 
ishly thrown around them the young couple began 
life and everything seemed to promise happiness for 
long years. 

But their joy was of short duration. Within a 
few months death stole the lovely bride and the 
young husband was left disconsolate and alone. So 
great was his sense of loneliness that he thought of 
returning to the home of his childhood in Switzer- 
land. But at length he came to be interested in poli- 

148 



Odds and Ends 

tics and in this he found his true vocation. He was 
elected to the Pennsylvania legislature and at once 
took the lead in that body. 

But there was one act of his life that he always 
regretted. He took part in the Whisky Insurrection 
of western Pennsylvania. This he afterwards ac- 
knowledged to be a " political sin " of which he re- 
pented. At the same time it was Gallatin who coun- 
seled that the people yield and obey the laws instead 
of rising in open rebellion. 

In December, 1795, Gallatin became a member 
of Congress, in the Lower House, where he served 
several terms. He was without exception the ablest 
member of the House, and its leader as long as he 
served in it. 

When Jefferson became President he chose Galla- 
tin secretary of the treasury, and he made a happy 
choice, for there was no man in the country more 
fitted for this responsible position in the Cabinet. 
For fourteen years Mr. Gallatin filled this office, and 
he then resigned only because President Madison 
wanted him to go to Ghent, Belgium, as a commis- 
sioner to arrange peace at the close of the War of 
1812. The writing of the treaty was almost wholly 
the work of Gallatin. 

When James Monroe became President, in 1817, 
he asked Gallatin to enter his Cabinet and again 
become secretary of the treasury, but Gallatin de- 
clined. He was then chosen as our minister to 
France, where he served for some years, and later 
he was minister to England. 

149 



A Guide to American History 

As Gallatin grew old he desired above all things 
to quit public life. He retired to his home at Friend- 
ship Hill, but was soon asked by the President to 
become again minister to France. He declined, and 
later he refused to become a member of the Panama 
Congress of 1826. After he had passed his eighty- 
second year he was invited to become secretary of 
the treasury, but of course declined. 

He lived to be eighty-eight, and spent his last 
years studying the language and habits of the In- 
dians, a subject that was always of great interest 
to him. His faithful wife (for he had married a 
second time) passed away in 1848, and the next year, 
at the home of his son-in-law on Long Island, Albert 
Gallatin breathed his last, after a long life of great 
usefulness and honor. 



Dolly Madison 

There was, in the early years of the Revolution, a 
wealthy Quaker named John Payne who lived in 
Virginia and held slaves. But he disliked slavery 
and decided to set his slaves free and move to Phila- 
delphia. He had a daughter named Dolly, a beau- 
tiful girl, who was yet a child when they reached the 
Quaker city. 

Dolly was a favorite everywhere. She was not 
only beautiful, she was most vivacious, witty, and 
entertaining. As she approached womanhood she 
won the heart of a rich young man named John 
Todd, and they were engaged to be married. But 

150 



Odds and Ends 

by and by Dolly's father lost his fortune and found 
himself a poor man. This misfortune did not seem 
to change Dolly's spirit, but the next time she saw 
John Todd she told him that she had changed her 
mind and had decided never to marry. 

]^ow John was a sagacious fellow and he thought 
he knew where the trouble lay. He told Dolly that 
her loss of fortune did not affect him in the least, 
that she was just the same to him as if she had a 
million, and so forth. John won the day — and the 
girl, too. They were soon married. 

Now came three years of happy married life and 
the birth of two little boys. Then came a dreadful 
calamity. 

Philadelphia had an awful scourge of yellow fever, 
and thousands were swept into the grave. Among 
the victims were John Todd and one of his baby 
boys. The bereaved wife lay at death's door for 
days, but recovered. 

Time passed and the poisonous disease disappeared. 
The heart of youth cannot be wounded beyond re- 
pair. Dolly recovered her spirits, her wit, her joy- 
ous nature. 

James Madison was a member of Congress of 
national fame. He was a middle-aged bachelor from 
Virginia. Congress at that time met in Philadelphia. 
One night Mr. Madison saw Dolly, now a rich widow 
of twenty-two. He was so charmed that he asked a 
mutual friend, Aaron Burr, to seek for him an in- 
troduction. She had heard a great deal of Mr. 
Madison, and did not object to meeting him. The 

151 



A Guide to American History 

next evening was set. Then she wrote to a friend 
as follows : 

Dear Friend : Thou must come to me this evening ; Aaron 
Burr says that the great little Madison has asked to be 
brought to me this evening. 

Mr. Madison came, and the vivacious widow took 
his heart by storm. A few months later they were 
married and the bride became Dolly Madison — the 
name by which she is known in history. 

During the eight years of the Presidency of 
Thomas Jefferson he was a vddower and Mrs. Dolly 
Madison was looked upon as the first lady of the 
land, as her husband was secretary of state. 

Mr. Madison himself was then elected President, 
and his charming wife graced the White House as 
few women have ever done. Foreign diplomats, vis- 
itors from abroad, government officials and every- 
body admired and honored this lovable woman. 

Let us notice one incident of her White House ex- 
perience. It was in the time of the war — in August, 
1814. A British army had landed near Washington 
and was approaching the city and there was no suf- 
ficient American army to protect it. President Mad- 
ison with some officers went out to Bladensburg, and 
there before night, on August 24th, a battle was 
fought. 

At noon Mrs. Madison wrote her sister: 

I have been turning my spyglass in every direction and 
watching with unwearied anxiety, hoping to discover the 
approach of my dear husband and his friends ; but, alas ! I 
cannot see them. 

152 



Odds and Ends 

At three o'clock she wrote: 

Three o'clock — will you believe it, my sister? We have 
had a battle near Bladensburg, and here I am still within 
sound of the cannon. Mr. Madison comes not. May God 
protect us. Two messengers covered with dust came to bid 
me fly; but here I mean to wait for him. 

At a later hour, however, Mrs. Madison did fly, 
and did not know until next day that her husband 
was safe. She had carefully packed in wagons the 
most valuable articles in the White House. When 
the men were ready to start she informed them that 
there was one thing more that must be taken — the 
large picture of General Washington, made by a 
famous artist. The men declared that the British 
were coming and there was no time to unscrew the 
large frame from the wall. But Mrs. Madison de- 
clared that they must save the picture, and she or- 
dered that the frame be broken and the canvas taken 
out and rolled. This was done, and that fine picture 
of the Father of his Country still exists — thanks to 
Dolly Madison. 

She fled to the country and spent the night with 
friends. That night the British burned the White 
House and other public buildings, and from that 
time to the close of the administration the President 
and his wife had to live in a rented house. 

When Mr. Madison ceased to be President he re- 
tired to his plantation in Virginia. Here he grew 
old, and for years before his death he was an invalid, 
scarcely able to leave his house. His wife had been 
accustomed from girlhood to gay society, but now 

153 



A Guide to American History 

she gave up all that and devoted her whole time 
and energy to caring for her decrepit husband, and 
it v^as her buoyant, joyous nature that soothed him 
as nothing else could have done. 

He died in 1836, the last of the framers of the 
Constitution. Mrs. Madison was twenty-one years 
younger than her husband, and she lived many years 
after his death. After spending some months in ar- 
ranging his papers she moved to Washington, where 
she spent the remainder of her life among loving 
friends. 

But there was one deep sorrow that weighed on 
her life. Her only child, the boy who had escaped 
the yellow fever when his father and little brother 
had died, gave his aged mother no comfort. He was 
a worthless spendthrift, and followed evil ways. 
When he should have been her greatest comfort he 
was the one burden on her soul that nothing but 
death could remove. 

One night as she sat listening to a friend reading 
from the Gospel of St. John she sank in her chair, a 
victim of apoplexy. For two days she lingered, and 
waking now and then she would hold out her arms 
to embrace the loving friends that stood around, and 
thus in death she was the same fond, loving friend 
that she had always been. 

A Visitor from Feancb 

In a former chapter we noticed the coming of the 
brave young Frenchman, Lafayette, to aid the Amer- 
icans in their long struggle for liberty. Almost fifty 

154 



Odds and Ends 

years had passed since then, and now he was an aged 
man with silver hair and wrinkled brow; but his 
heart was ever young and his love of liberty never 
grew cold. 

Many were the experiences of Lafayette during 
those fifty years. France had passed through a revo- 
lution far more bloody than ours, and he was always 
found on the side of human liberty. Five years he 
spent in an Austrian prison because of his principles, 
and he had lost his fortune. 

He accepted the invitation of President Monroe 
to visit the people for whom he had fought in his 
youth, and landed in New York in August, 1824. 

He was received with the boom of cannon, the 
ringing of bells, and the shouts of the people. Great 
festivals were held in his honor in the cities of the 
East — 'New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. But the 
rising West was not satisfied that he spend his whole 
time in the East; the people in all the States urged 
that he pay them a visit, and he did so. From Wash- 
ington he passed through Virginia, paid a visit to the 
aged ex-President, Thomas Jefferson, and proceeded 
through Georgia to Kew Orleans. 

In every city and village he was given a welcome 
by the people, and especially by the school children, 
who marched in lines carrying flowers and banners. 

He went up the Mississippi in a steamboat, the 
Mechanic, and met with a serious accident. The 
Mechanic struck a snag in the river and sank within 
a few minutes. The passengers escaped drowning, 
but lost all their baggage. Lafayette lost his car- 

155 



A Guide to American History 

riage and many valuable papers. He passed up tlie 
Ohio River to Pittsburg and from there across the 
country to Lake Erie. He then returned to 'New 
York by way of the Erie Canal and the Hudson 
River. In one hundred days he had visited seven- 
teen States, having traveled five thousand miles. 

The one thing that pleased the famous French gen- 
eral above all things was to meet the old soldiers of 
the Revolution. There were not many of them left, 
but here and there he found one, tottering with age. 
In Xew York he had a long talk with Colonel Wil- 
let, a veteran in his eighty-fifth year. The two had 
borne arms together on the battle field, and had often 
slept in the same tent when in camp. What a joy 
it was to meet again and talk over those days of long 
ago! 

Lafayette spent several months in "Washington, 
and Henry Clay, the Speaker of the House, intro- 
duced to him all the members of Congress, and 
Congress, as we have seen before, voted him a large 
sum of money. 

He visited the tomb of Washington at Mt. Yer- 
non, and was the guest of honor at the laying of the 
comer stone of the Bunker Hill Monument. 

It was fifty years to the day after the famous bat- 
tle of Bunker Hill (June 17, 1825) that this corner 
stone was laid. ITever had Boston experienced such 
a gala day. The coming of the dawn was greeted 
with the roar of cannon. The people gathered in un- 
counted thousands, and when the procession moved 
through the streets, with the distinguished Erench- 

156 



Odds and Ends 

man as the honored guest, the people who lined the 
streets cheered with great enthusiasm. 

When thej reached the place where the monument 
was to be reared the first ceremony was to introduce 
the few survivors of the famous battle to the hon- 
ored guest, after which he laid the corner stone with 
his own hands. He was then asked to take a seat re- 
served for him under a pavilion, but he refused, 
saying : 

" E'o, I belong there among the survivors of the 
Revolution and there I must sit." 

The oration was given by America's greatest ora- 
tor, Daniel Webster, and this was one of the greatest 
orations of his life. 

A few months later Lafayette sailed for his native 
land in a Government vessel, the Brandywine, which 
was named after the battle in which he had been 
wounded, in 1Y77. 'No other foreigner has ever 
been received with such a welcome in this country as 
that which was given to Lafayette. 

A Bloodless Duel 

In the early years of our Republic the practice of 
fighting duels was widespread. A man who felt him- 
self insulted by another would send a challenge to 
the other to meet him on the " field of honor," as 
they called it. Duelling was not confined to the 
ruffians and rowdies; it was engaged in by nearly 
every class. Often a duel ended with no harm to 
either side; but sometimes it ended in a tragedy. 

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A Guide to American History 

The great American statesman, Alexander Hamil- 
ton, was killed in a duel by Aaron Burr, Vice-Presi- 
dent of the United States. Stephen Decatur, a 
famous naval officer, was slain in the same way by a 
fellow officer. But the duel here to be described 
turned out happily, no one being hurt. It was be- 
tween two leading statesmen — Henry Clay and John 
Randolph. 

Henry Clay is well known; John Randolph was 
a member of Congress from Virginia. He served at 
least twenty-five years and was known as the witti- 
est man ever in Congress. He and Henry Clay 
fought a duel, and both came out whole. Here is 
how it occurred. 

It was in 1826. John Quincy Adams was Presi- 
dent of the United States, and Henry Clay was Sec- 
retary of State. They had arranged to send dele- 
gates to the Panama Congress, which was held that 
year. But many members of our Congress were 
very much opposed to this, and some of them said 
sharp things about it. Randolph was one of these, 
and he made a speech in the Senate in which he 
referred to Adams and Clay as " the Puritan and the 
blackleg.'^ 

Clay was very angry when he heard this and he 
sent Randolph a challenge to a duel. Randolph did 
not want to fight Clay, least of all to wound or kill 
him. In fact, he rather liked him. True, he had 
called him a blackleg in a speech, but Randolph 
often used such terms in a reckless way and did not 
expect them to be taken too seriously. As a gen- 

158 



Odds and Ends 

tleman was not expected to refuse a challenge, Mr. 
Randolph accepted. 

Each man chose a " second," that is, a friend to 
make all arrangements. Now these seconds did not 
wish to see either Clay or Randolph hurt, so they 
dallied with the subject for one reason or another, 
thinking that Mr. Clay would cool down and no duel 
be fought. A whole week passed in this way, but 
Clay made no sign of relenting. Then the seconds 
devised a plan by which they hoped to make the 
duelists miss each other. The signal to shoot was 
this : " One, two, three, fire, stop." ISTeither was to 
fire his pistol before he heard the word " fire," nor 
after he heard the word " stop." The seconds de- 
cided to count so fast that there would hardly be time 
to fire, or at least no time to take careful aim. 

The company, including Senator Benton, the 
famous Missourian, drove across the Potomac to the 
Virginia side, on April 8, 1826. Randolph had said 
to Benton that he would fire his pistol in the air and 
not at Mr. Clay, but he changed his mind. They 
met in a dense wood and stood ten paces apart. The 
signal was given, and the schem^e worked well. The 
count was so fast that the duelists had little time to 
take aim. Both fired and both missed. 

They then reloaded to try again. While they 
were doing this Randolph said aside to Senator Ben- 
ton that he would not fire at Clay again, that he 
would not kill him for all the wealth of the United 
States. The signal was given again; Clay fired and 
the bullet passed through Randolph's coat. Ran- 

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A Guide to American History 

dolph then shot his pistol into the air, threw it to the 
ground and said: " I do not fire at you, Mr. Clay.'' 
He then walked toward Clay with extended hand. 
This was too much. Clay's anger was gone in an 
instant. He threw his pistol to the ground and went 
to meet Randolph, who said with mock seriousness: 
" Mr. Clay, you owe me a new coat." 
" I'm glad the debt is no greater," said Clay, and 
the two men engaged in a hearty, old-fashioned hand- 
shake. 

Inauguration of " Old Hickoey " 

Again we meet with the one whom we saw as a 
boy in the Revolution walking forty miles while suf- 
fering with the smallpox. We met him also at the 
battle of New Orleans, in January, 1815. Now for 
the third time here he is — Andrew Jackson, often 
called " Old Hickory." 

He came to be called by this nickname in this 
way: One time during the War of 1812 he was lead- 
ing an army home after a campaign, a distance of 
several hundred miles. It was a body of infantry, 
that is, foot soldiers. The general himself had three 
good horses, but he loaned these to sick men who 
could not walk and himself walked with the rest. 
As they were plodding along some one said, " The 
general is tough," and another answered, "As tough 
as hickory." From this he came to be called " Old 
Hickory," and the name clung to him through life. 

Andrew Jackson was often called the people's 
President. He was the first (but not the last) of our 

160 



Odds and Ends 

Presidents to rise from the ranks of the common 
people. All who came before him were from well- 
known or wealthy families. Washington was one of 
the richest landowners in America ; John Adams was 
a famous lawyer and a signer of the Declaration of 
Independence; Jefferson's father owned thousands of 
acres of land in Virginia, and Madison and Monroe 
were from families of the same class. But Jackson 
rose from the ranks of the poor and unknown. 

After a hot contest in 1828 Jackson defeated John 
Quincy Adams and was elected President of the 
United States. A few weeks later his beloved wife 
died. His age was then sixty-one, but his friends 
declared that he aged twenty years in a night be- 
cause of her death, so great was his attachment to 
her, and it was said that from this time, as long as 
he lived, he never went to bed at night without look- 
ing at her picture. 

Soon after her funeral he started on his long, 
laborious journey from Nashville, Tenn., to Wash- 
ington. He went by way of the Cumberland and 
Ohio Rivers to Pittsburg by steamboat, and at every 
town and every landing the people shouted him 
a royal welcome. He reached the capital city some 
weeks before the 4th of March, and when that day 
came the city was crowded with vast throngs of peo- 
ple who had come to see the people's man made 
President. One eyewitness wrote that it seemed 
that half the nation had rushed at once into the 
capital. 

March 4th was one of the clearest, balmiest days 

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A Guide to American History 

in the spring. Jackson walked to the capital, and 
when he appeared before the multitude, " the peal 
of shouting," says the writer above quoted, " that 
arose rent the air, and seemed to shake the very 
ground." 

When the chief justice, John Marshall, adminis- 
tered the oath of office Jackson bowed his head and 
the crowd grew reverently silent. The ceremony 
over, the new President rode on horseback to the 
White House, the crowd following in all kinds of 
vehicles, and thousands on foot, walking, running 
helter-skelter and shouting themselves hoarse. At 
the White House they were treated to orange punch 
— barrels and tubs full of it. 

So dense was the crowd that at one time Jackson 
was pinned against the wall and could not move. He 
was rescued by a number of his friends, who caught 
hands and pressed the people back. The rabble had 
full sway. They stood on the costly sofas and the 
damask-satin-covered chairs with their muddy boots, 
and accidentally broke a fine chandelier. 

What did Jackson say to all this? Did he get an- 
gry? He had a very decided temper, as we well 
know, but it did not appear on that day. He sim- 
ply said, " Let the boys have a good time once in 
four years," and probably he never said anything 
that gives more insight into the cause of his great 
popularity. 



162 



Odds and Ends 



A Captain- of the Black Hawk War 

In the first place, the Black Hawk War was a very 
small, insignificant affair, and scarcely deserves to be 
mentioned in American history. 

In the second place, the captain here referred to 
was not much of a captain after all. He never had 
any military training worth mentioning before this 
war, nor during this war, nor afterwards. He never 
was in a battle, never had a gun fired at him, and 
never shot at an enemy. It is true that blood was 
drawn on this midsummer campaign against the 
Indians in 1832 ; blood was drawn on this very cap- 
tain we are writing about, as he himself afterwards 
asserted on the floor of Congress, but not by the en- 
emy; it was drawn by mosquitoes. 

Why all this about a war that was hardly a war at 
all, and about this o£Scer who was hardly an officer 
at all? 

Well, here is the reason: When a man becomes 
great and famous we like to look back to his boyhood 
and see what he was then. The fame of this man 
came to fill the world, and it still does. He was 
probably the most notable world figure of the nine- 
teenth century. His name was Abraham Lincoln. 

At this time Lincoln was a young man of twenty- 
three. He had lived in three States — Kentucky, In- 
diana, Illinois. He was a man of many occupations : 
a farmer, a rail splitter, a postmaster, a storekeeper, 
a surveyor, a river boatman, and now a soldier. 

163 



A Guide to American History 

When Black Hawk, chief of the Sac Indians, 
broke a treaty with the whites and moved his tribe 
across the Mississippi into Hlinois, the governor of 
that State called for volunteers. The young men be- 
gan to enlist, and one of the first was Abraham Lin- 
coln. In his own neighborhood there was a consid- 
erable number of volunteers, but they had no officer 
to lead them, and they decided to make one. They 
chose as their captain the most popular one among 
them — Abraham Lincoln. 

He knew no more than the rest of them about 
military tactics, but with a natural self-confidence 
that later carried him through a far greater war he 
assumed the command, collected his men, and they 
started on foot for the seat of war. One day as they 
were marching along, two abreast, they came to a 
fence with a turnstile which would admit of onlv 
one passing through at a time. E^ow the commander 
did not know what words a military officer uses to 
make his men break ranks. So he shouted : " This 
company is dissolved for two minutes; it will form 
in line again on the other side of the fence.'' 

For many days this company marched on. At 
length it joined the main army, some 2,500 men. 
But no enemy was to be found. The Indians were 
wise enough to keep out of the way. Perhaps they 
had heard of the gallant company from Hlinois, with 
the tall, black-haired captain who was ready for any 
emergency, even to marching his men single file 
through a turnstile. Many of the volunteers grew 
restless and wanted to go home, and several hundred 

164 



Odds and Ends 

of them were discharged. Among those who volun- 
teered to remain was Captain Lincoln. 

Among the officers in this war was another future 
President, Zachary Taylor. And there was a gallant 
young cavalry officer from Mississippi who had mar- 
ried a daughter of Zachary Taylor. In his bright 
uniform he sat gracefully on his horse. Whether he 
noticed the tall, awkward-looking improvised captain 
from Illinois I cannot say. They may have seen 
each other, but probably did not meet or converse. 
And they never met afterwards, but the time came 
when they heard and knew a very great deal about 
each other. The name of the young cavalry officer 
was Jefferson Davis. 

We shall not pretend to give a history of this little 
war. Our purpose is simply to give an episode in 
the life of Lincoln which is not widely known. The 
army made a detour into Wisconsin and there were 
a few slight battles, but Captain Lincoln did not hap- 
pen to be present at any of them. He therefore 
never experienced the exhilaration, the fear, or 
whatever it may be, of a soldier under fire. 

The war continued but three months. Black 
Hawk promised to be good — to keep on his own side 
of the river, and kept his promise. Some time after 
this Black Hawk made a tour of the East and visited 
the great cities of the Atlantic slope. When he saw 
what a vast power the United States was he knew 
that it would be utter folly for the scattered Indian 
tribes to make war on such a mighty people. 

Years later when Abraham Lincoln was serving 

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A Guide to American History 

in Congress he made a humorous speech about his 
experience in the Black Hawk War. Here are a few 
words from it: 

" By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know that I 
am a military hero? Yes, sir, in the days of the 
Black Hawk War I fought, bled, and came away — 
I had a good many bloody struggles with the mos- 
quitoes; and although I never fainted from loss of 
blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry." 

A Carriage Drive in England 

It is not my purpose to say much about this car- 
riage drive, but rather to use it to introduce two 
prominent American citizens — Martin Van Buren 
and Washington Irving. Mr. Van Buren had been 
a United States senator and later was elected gov- 
ernor of !N^ew York. He resigned the governorship 
to enter the Cabinet of President Jackson as secre- 
tary of state. After he had served in the Cabinet 
for about two years a position opened to him that he 
thought he would like better. The American min- 
ister to England resigned and Van Buren was ap- 
pointed to fill the place. President Jackson was 
always very friendly to Van Buren and granted him 
every favor that was in his power. 

He made this appointment in the summer of 1831, 
when Congress was not in session. The Senate must 
pass judgment on such appointments, but if they are 
made when that body is not in session the one ap- 
pointed may accept the office and serve till the next 

166 



Odds and Ends 

session of Congress, when the Senate must vote on 
the appointment. 

Mr. Van Buren did not wait for the December 
meeting of Congress. He accepted the mission and 
sailed for London, arriving there in September. On 
reaching the English metropolis he met Washington 
Irving, the famous American author, whose books 
he had often read and of whom he had heard a great 
deal. Irving had been abroad for many years. He 
had recently come from Spain, where he had finished 
his " Life of Columbus " and " Conquest of Gra- 
nada.'' He now met Mr. Van Buren, and the two 
became fast friends. He introduced the new minis- 
ter to the high social life of London. 'No other 
American knew the great city so well or was so popu- 
lar among all classes in England. 

Washington Irving was born in New York in 
April, 1783, a few months before General Washing- 
ton disbanded his army there, and was one of the 
first to receive his name. At the age of twenty- 
six he became famous by publishing his humorous 
" Knickerbocker History of New York," and he was 
the first American writer to gain a reputation in 
Europe. 

Irving was at the height of his career at the time 
he met Van Buren in London. After the two men 
had spent some weeks in London society they de- 
cided on a carriage drive to various famous places. 
Van Buren knew almost nothing of English rural 
life except what he had learned from Irving's wri- 
tings. He had read "The Sketch Book" and 

167 



A Guide to American History 

^^ Bracebridge Hall," and now it was the joy of 
his life to visit the scenes therein described with the 
very author who had described them. They visited 
Oxford and Stratford, the birthplace of Shakespeare; 
Kenilworth and Warwick Castle and Newstead 
Abbey and many other places famed in song and 
story. At Stratford they stopped at a little inn 
called the Red Horse and found there the same 
obliging little landlady who had been described by 
Irving in his " Sketch Book." I wonder if there is 
any boy or girl reading this book who has not read 
the " Sketch Book " or " Bracebridge Hall ? " 

After this deKghtful drive the two friends re- 
turned to London and again entered the social life 
of the great city. But one day in February, 1832, 
Mr. Van Buren received a bit of news from America 
which astonished him. He heard that the United 
States Senate had refused to confirm his appoint- 
ment as minister to England. He had made enemies 
in the Senate and they now thought to end his pub- 
lic career at a stroke; but such things often turn out 
differently from what is intended. The American 
people thought the Senate had dealt too harshly with 
Yan Buren, that it only showed a spiteful feeling in 
rejecting his appointment to London, and they pro- 
nounced their verdict later. We all know the 
rest of the story. Van Buren, after a tour on the 
Continent, returned to America, and before that 
year — 1832 — had closed he was elected Vice-Presi- 
dent, and four years later, President of the United 
States. 

168 



Odds and Ends 

Irving also returned to his native land and made 
his home near Sleepy Hollow on the Hudson. Here 

he grew old, dying in 1859, and here he was buried. 



A Sad Ending to an Excursion Paety 

Martin Yan Buren, as we have noticed, succeeded 
Jackson as President of the United States; but he 
was defeated in 1840 by the candidate of the Whig 
party, William Henry Harrison. The Whigs were 
greatly elated over their victory, but their joy was 
short. Mr. Harrison died exactly a month after his 
inauguration. John Tyler, who had been elected 
Vice-President, now became President. But we 
must get to our story. 

It was February 28, 1844. There was a new 
Government vessel, the Princeton^ lying in the Poto- 
mac below the capital. The captain was Commodore 
Stockton and he was very proud of his ship. He in- 
vited about a hundred people to take an excursion 
with him down the river and among the guests were 
President Tyler, the members of his Cabinet and 
their families, and several senators and representa- 
tives. 

A gay company it was, shouting and laughing as 
they steamed down the river. There was a great 
gun on board, called the Peacemaker, throwing a 
225-pound shell, and this gun was fired several times 
as the vessel glided through the water. There were 
on board Mr. Gardiner, of Virginia, and his daugh- 
ter, to whom President Tyler (now a widower) was 

169 



A Guide to American History- 
engaged to be married; also the aged Mrs. Dolly 
Madison, whom all America delighted to honor. 

As thej were returning up the river, toward even- 
ing, and after they had partaken of a repast, the 
guests were invited to come on deck and witness one 
more salute to be fired from the Peacemaker. All 
came hurrying up and a crowd was soon gathered 
about the huge cannon. There was a long stretch of 
the river below and the people looked to see the ball 
skim the surface of the water. All was ready; the 
match was applied. There was a deafening roar. 
The gun had burst and nearly a dozen people lay 
dead and many more wounded on the deck. All on 
the left side of the gun were killed or maimed, as 
it had exploded on that side. Those on the right 
and in the rear were knocked senseless, but recov- 
ered. 

President Tyler had been called away a moment 
before the explosion and thus he escaped; but Mr. 
Gardiner, the father of his betrothed, was among the 
dead. Two members of the Cabinet, Mr. Upshur, 
secretary of state, and Mr. Gilmer, secretary of the 
navy, were killed. Senator Benton, who had stood 
behind the gun, was unconscious for some time, but 
was not seriously injured. 

Morse and the Telegraph 

One of the most astonishing inventions of modern 
times is the electric telegraph, and the name of Sam- 
uel F. B. Morse will ever be connected with it. A 

170 



Odds and Ends 

hundred years ago it required a month or more for 
news to cross the Atlantic Ocean ; now it requires but 
a moment. The overthrow of Napoleon at Water- 
loo occurred on Jime 18, 1815, and the fact was not 
known in America till late in July or the first of 
August. The crowning of King Edward YII took 
place on August 9, 1902, and the fact was printed in 
American newspapers within the same hour. All 
this from the telegraph. 

Professor Morse was born in Massachusetts, in 
1791. After graduating at Yale in 1810 he went to 
England to study art. He became famous as an 
artist and was elected Professor of the Art of Design 
in the University of the City of !N'ew York. He also 
became interested in electricity, and the idea of the 
telegraph came to him while crossing the Atlantic in 
1832. Two or three years later he had telegraph 
wires in a room in the university and the results 
were conclusive proof that the invention was success- 
ful. Morse then applied for a patent and also ap- 
plied to Congress for a grant of money to build an 
experimental line from Washington to Baltimore; 
but nothing was done for him at the time. He then 
went to Europe and tried to interest foreign govern- 
ments, but had no success. Morse was now reduced 
almost to his last dollar and again he came to Con- 
gress for assistance. He had been granted the privi- 
lege to set up a line in the lower rooms of the 
Capitol and the members of Congress could hardly 
believe their senses when they were enabled to con- 
verse with one another from the different rooms. 

in 



A Guide to American History 

And yet when a bill came up to grant the inventor 
$30,000 there was much opposition, and many were 
the shafts of ridicule aimed at him. One member 
moved that an appropriation be made to construct a 
railroad to the moon. Another declared that all 
magnetic telegraphs ^ivere miserable chimeras, fit for 
nothing. 

During this debate Morse stood leaning against 
the railing in great agitation. To a friend he said, 
placing his hand on his head : " I have an awful head- 
ache — I have spent seven years and all I had perfect- 
ing this invention. If the bill fails I am ruined — I 
have not money enough to pay my board bill." 

The bill was laid over till the last day of the ses- 
sion and there were more than a hundred other bills 
to be considered that day. Morse gave up hope and 
went to his room. Next morning, deeply depressed 
in spirits, he was about to start for New York when 
he heard that the bill to grant him $30,000 to estab- 
lish a telegraph line to Baltimore had passed Con- 
gress about midnight. We can only imagine the 
feelings of Professor Morse at this great news. His 
fortune was made. Now he could show the world 
what he had done. 

This was in 1843. The line to Baltimore was fin- 
ished by the next year. When ready for use Pro- 
fessor Morse asked Miss Ellsworth, a young daugh- 
ter of the commissioner of patents, to name the first 
sentence to be transmitted. She chose a sentence 
from the Bible, "What hath God wrought!" and 
who could suggest a more appropriate one? No hu- 

172 



Odds and Ends 

man invention seems more the work of the Divine 
Hand than the telegraph. 

At the time when the line was finished the Demo- 
cratic convention was in session in Baltimore and 
the first practical message ever sent by telegraph was 
the news that James K. Polk had been nominated 
for the Presidency. 

Everybody was soon convinced that the telegraph 
was a thing of immeasurable usefulness. Morse be- 
came the hero of the hour. He had done the world 
a service that can never be forgotten and his name 
is placed among the immortals. He lived to be old 
— lived to see his invention in use in every civilized 
land, to see the Old and New Worlds connected by 
cable laid on the bottom of the sea. He lived to en- 
joy the unbounded gratitude of his countrymen and 
to receive special honors from almost every monarch 
in Europe. 

The Creole Aefair 

The Creole was a slave ship, plying between N^or- 
folk, Va., and New Orleans. She left N'orfolk 
in I^ovember, 1841, with 135 slaves on board. One 
of them was a mulatto named Madison Washington. 
He had some time before run away from his master 
in Virginia, had crossed the Northern States by 
means of the " Underground Pailroad " and taken 
up his abode in Canada, where the laws of England 
made him free. 

But Washington was very unhappy in Canada be- 
cause he had left his wife in slavery. At length he 

173 



A Guide to American History 

determined to find his way back to Virginia, to res- 
cue his wife and take her with him to Canada. It 
was a dangerous thing to attempt, for if he were 
caught he would certainly be sold to some trader 
and taken to the far South, from which he could 
never hope to return. This was usually the punish- 
ment for a slave who attempted to escape or to aid 
in the escape of others. Washington knew this, but 
he was so disconsolate without his life companion 
that he dared to make the long journey to attempt 
her rescue. 

His worst fears were realized. He was recognized 
and seized and sold to the far South. 

The brig Creole was about to start with its human 
cargo on a long voyage to New Orleans. Madison 
was one of the slaves on board when the vessel left 
E'orfolk. In deepest dejection he brooded over his 
bitter fate and thought he would rather die than 
wear his life out on one of the great plantations, un- 
der the lash of the overseer, and never see his 
friends again. Then in desperation he conceived a 
plot to conspire with some of his fellow slaves to kill 
the masters of the vessel, to seize it and steer for the 
coast of Africa. 

They had been some days at sea and were nearing 
the Bahama Islands. Washington had eighteen of 
the slaves in his plot and one night, armed with 
knives and handspikes, the nineteen rose in mutiny, 
rushed to the cabin where the officers, their wives 
and children were asleep, and began their murderous 
work. One of the slave owners was killed and the 

174 



Odds and Ends 

captain of the brig was severely wounded, but most 
of them escaped with little or no injury. 

The blacks soon had control of the vessel, and they 
told the wounded captain that they would spare him, 
his wife, and his children, if he would steer for Li- 
beria, on the coast of Africa. He agreed to do what- 
ever they asked, but convinced them that there was 
not enough food and water on board to take them 
halfway across the ocean. He was then ordered to 
steer for a British port in the West Indies. He did 
so, and a day or two later they landed at the to^vn 
of l^assau. 

Here they were in the hands of British authorities 
and on British soil, and a law of England was that 
any slave who sets foot on British soil is from that 
moment free. All but the nineteen mutineers were 
therefore given their freedom, but the nineteen were 
held for further consideration. The American au- 
thorities demanded that they be sent to the United 
States to be tried for murder and mutiny, but the 
British officials refused to give them up until they 
could get orders from London. This required some 
time, and meantime Daniel Webster, who was then 
secretary of state, wrote to London demanding that 
the men be given up. 

The British Government considered the matter 
and decided that, as no treaty between the two na- 
tions covered this ground, and that, as a slave had 
a right to kill his master to obtain his own freedom, 
the men should not be given up. Whereupon the 
nineteen mutineers were also given their liberty. 

175 



CHAPTER XIII 

TEXAS AND OREGON 

THE United States had grown greatly in extent 
of territory since the close of the Revolution. 
The greatest single increase came through the Louisi- 
ana Purchase in 1803. What was then known as 
Louisiana was many times larger than the State that 
is now known by that name. It comprised all the 
States on the west bank of the Mississippi and a few 
others. 

!N^ext to Louisiana our great accessions of territory 
(not counting Alaska) were California, which we 
shall treat in our next chapter, and Texas and Ore- 
gon, the subject of this chapter. 

Revolution" ii^ Texas 

The first white settlers in Texas were Spanish 
Catholic missionaries, who built missions there 
about two hundred years ago. Texas was then a 
part of Mexico and Mexico belonged to Spain. In 
1824 Mexico set up a republic and won its inde- 
pendence from Spain. Texas was one of its north- 
ern provinces. It was then almost uninhabited, ex- 
cept by Indian tribes. 

176 



Texas and Oregon 

The Mexican Government was anxious to have 
Texas settled and it offered large grants of land al- 
most for nothing. One of the first to secure a land 
grant was Moses Austin, an American citizen. But 
he died hefore he could carry out his project of 
planting a colony in Texas. Thereupon his son, 
Stephen F. Austin, carried out the purpose of his 
father. He soon had a flourishing colony in the 
valley of the Brazos River, and the echoes of the 
settlers' ax were heard in the forest where they had 
never been heard before. Stephen F. Austin was a 
great-hearted, kindly man. It is said that every 
child in the colony would run to him and climb on 
his knee as readily as on its father's. He has been 
called the Father of Texas. The capital of the State 
bears his name. 

Austin's colony was founded in 1821, and after 
that other settlers came rapidly, a great many of 
them from the United States. This alarmed Mex- 
ico; she feared too many Americans would create a 
sentiment in favor of seceding from her and joining 
the United States, and the fear was well founded. 

In the early thirties there was open war between 
Mexico and Texas. There were two reasons for this. 
First, because Mexico put Texas under military gov- 
ernment; second, because Mexico, having freed her 
slaves, wanted Texas to do so too; but many of the 
Texans were from our slave States and they refused 
to do this. 

For several years bands of lawless men of each 
party traversed the lonely wilderness for hundreds 

177 



A Guide to American History 

of miles and when they met they fought. Many 
were their bloody encounters. By 1835 the Texans 
were in open revolt and the next year they declared 
their independence and set up the Republic of Texas. 
Of the sixty men who signed the Declaration of In- 
dependence fifty-three had been born in the United 
States. 

Two notable figures now come upon the scene. 
One is Santa Anna, the President of Mexico, a no- 
torious character who called himself the " I^apoleon 
of the West." The other man was Sam Houston, who 
became the first President of the Republic of Texas. 

In the spring of 1836 there were two events that 
are still famous in the history of Texas. One was 
the massacre of the Alamo ; the other was the battle 
of San Jacinto, and they were very different in their 
results. 

The Alamo was a stone fort near San Antonio that 
had been built for a mission nearly a hundred years 
before. One morning in the spring of 1836 the 
people of the village were surprised by the approach 
of an army of Mexicans several thousand strong, led 
by Santa Anna himself, the ISTapoleon of the West. 
There was a small army of Texans, not 200 men, 
who stationed themselves in the Alamo determined 
to fight to the last. Among them was David Crock- 
ett, known as " Davie " Crockett. 

Let us turn aside for a moment to notice this re- 
markable man. He was born in a wretched cabin 
in Tennessee. His father was a miserable drunkard 
and was cruel to his family. When Davie was but 

1Y8 



Texas and Oregon 

twelve years old his father hired him to a Dutchman 
to help drive a herd of cattle 400 miles on foot and 
the little fellow was to make his way hack alone as 
hest he could. How he obtained food and crossed 
rivers I do not know, but a few months later he 
reached his father's cabin safe and sound. Long 
before he was of age he left home, plunged deeper 
into the wilderness and became a famous hunter. 
He had many a thrilling adventure. During the 
War of 1812 he served in the Indian campaigns 
under General Jackson and was one of the most dar- 
ing soldiers in the army. 

Davie Crockett was a good story teller, was very 
witty and full of original sayings. He could not 
read or write, but he was very popular and his 
friends induced him to be a candidate for the legis- 
lature. He consented and enjoyed the excitement of 
the campaign. He said, " When I goes electioneer- 
ing, I goes fixed for the purpose. I've got a deer- 
leather suit of clothes with two big pockets. I puts 
a bottle of whisky in one and a twist of tobacker in 
the other and starts out." He was elected to the 
legislature and after serving for a time announced 
himself for Congress. He was elected to Congress 
three times, serving six years in all. 

In Congress Davie Crockett attracted much at- 
tention. He knew nothing about lawmaking, but 
his original wit and his wild, uncultured ways of 
the frontier attracted attention and made him many 
friends. One day when a speaker in the House 
strayed from his subject Crockett exclaimed that he 

179 



A Guide to American History 

was " barking up the wrong tree," an expression that 
we sometimes hear to this day. 

President John Quincy Adams invited Crockett 
among many others to a formal dinner and here is 
in part Crockett's description of his experience : 

" I went to dinner and walked all around the long 
table looking for something that I liked. At last I 
took my seat beside a fat goose and helped myself to 
as much of it as I wanted. I hadn't took more'n 
three bites when I looked away and when I looked 
back, my plate was gone, goose and all. I seed a man 
walkin' off with it. I said, Hello, Mister, bring 
back my goose. After that whenever I looked away, 
I held on to my plate with my left hand. When we 
was all done a man came along with a great glass 
thing. It was stuck full of little glass cups with 
something in them that looked good. I says. Mister, 
bring that thing here — let's taste what you got. I 
found they was mighty sweet and so I took six of 
them." 

The newspaper stories about how Crockett acted 
in Washington were too much even for the back- 
woodsmen who had elected him, and when he stood 
for a fourth election, he was defeated by a man who 
had more training in good manners. This was gall- 
ing to Crockett. He left Tennessee and went to 
Texas, and we find him at the Alamo. This brings 
us back to our story. 

When Santa Anna surrounded the Alamo with his 
army and decided to take it by storm — that is, by one 
grand assault — there were but 188 men in it. They 

180 



Texas and Oregon 

fought like demons and slew hundreds of Mexicans, 
but the odds were too great. At length every Texan 
but six was slain. These six were taken alive, and 
among them was Davie Crockett. They were 
brought before Santa Anna, and he, with a wave of 
the hand, said, " Kill them, every one of them." 

At this Crockett sprang like a tiger at the throat 
of Santa Anna, but a dozen swords were thrust into 
him and he fell dead without a groan. The other 
^ve were also dispatched and not a man was left of 
the brave defenders of the Alamo. 



" Remember the Alamo " 

At this point we must notice another Texan, still 
more remarkable than Crockett — General Samuel 
Houston. He was born in Virginia, but his parents 
moved to the wilds of Tennessee where the boy grew 
to manhood. Their home was near a tribe of the 
Cherokee Indians and Sam learned to love them 
almost better than his own race. Many a day he 
spent chasing the deer with the Cherokees, or play- 
ing their games with them. Like Davie Crockett, he 
served in the war against the Creeks under Jackson, 
and was in the famous battle of the Horseshoe. 
Here he was wounded by an arrow which stuck in 
his thigh. He asked a comrade to pull it out, but 
the man, after trying, declared that he could not. 
" Draw it out or I will strike you with my sword,'' 
cried Houston. The man did so, tearing the flesh 
with the barb. General Jackson then ordered Hous- 

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A Guide to American History 

ton to the rear, but he refused to go. He rushed to 
the front, to the thickest of the fight, where, later 
in the day, he was struck down by two bullets in 
the shoulder. He was carried from the field and for 
many weeks his life was despaired of. 

At the age of twenty-five Houston went to Nash- 
ville to study law. In 1823 he was elected to Con- 
gress, and after serving two terms, he was elected 
Governor of Tennessee. 

While governor the old inclinations of his boy- 
hood gained control of him. He resigned the office 
and fled to the Cherokee Indians. For several years 
he lived with the Cherokees, wearing their garb and 
entering into all their ways of life. In 1832 he 
left them and went to Texas. This was really the 
beginning of his career. He was a signer of the Dec- 
laration of Independence of Texas, and was then 
chosen commander of her armies. He won the battle 
that gave Texas her freedom, became the first Presi- 
dent of the Republic of Texas and, after her ad- 
mission into our Union, was one of the first to be 
sent to the United States Senate from the new State. 
Here he served for many years and when he retired 
in his old age to his adopted State, he was again 
elected governor. Then came the Civil War. Gov- 
ernor Houston was opposed to the secession of the 
State, but Texas seceded in spite of him. He was 
then deposed from his office and he retired to his 
home in Walker County, where he died in the same 
month that witnessed the fall of Vicksburg and the 
battle of Gettysburg— July, 1863. 

182 



Texas and Oregon 

" Remember the Alamo " was the cry of the Tex- 
ans after they heard of that brutal massacre. Hous- 
ton had a small army, probably a few more than 
seven hundred men. Santa Anna's numbered at 
least eighteen hundred. But a few weeks after the 
Alamo the two armies came together and the most 
important battle ever fought in Texas was the re- 
sult — the battle of San Jacinto. 

It was the morning of April 21. Santa Anna had 
led his army across the Buffalo Bayou near its junc- 
tion with the San Jacinto Biver and here he came 
face to face with the army of Houston. The Texans 
had but two small pieces of artillery called the 
" Twin Sisters.'^ A volley from these caused Santa 
Anna to fall back out of sight to form in battle line. 
Houston now sent Deaf Smith, a celebrated Texas 
spy, with two or three others to destroy a bridge 
over the bayou over which the Mexicans had come. 
This done, the Mexicans had no means of escape in 
case of defeat. Houston then led his men in three 
columns silently toward the enemy. When within 
seventy yards the Texans shouted their battle cry, 
" Remember the Alamo ! '^ and made an impetuous 
dash toward the unprepared Mexicans. The latter 
were soon in utter confusion. They started to run 
to cross the bridge, but found it burned to ashes. 
Many then leaped into the bayou and were drowned. 
Many were taken captive, some scattered and hid in 
the prairie. 

Among the last was Santa Anna himself and next 
morning he was found lying in the grass with a blan- 

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A Guide to American History 

ket over his head, like an ostrich that hides its head 
in the sand. When taken to General Houston he 
said: 

" I am General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, a 
prisoner of war at your disposal. You can afford 
to be generous; you have conquered the Napoleon 
of the West." 

General Houston at first intended to put his cap- 
tive to death on account of his treatment of the 
Texans at the Alamo; but it was decided that the 
Mexican President could have his freedom on the con- 
dition that he would do three things — restore all 
captured property, order all Mexican troops from the 
soil of Texas, and promise never again to take up 
arms against its people. Santa Anna did this and 
Texas was free. The Republic of Texas was estab- 
lished as an independent nation and was recognized 
by the United States and several European countries. 
General Sam Houston became its first President. 



Texas Joins the Sisterhood 

During the next nine years Texas was an independ- 
ent republic, though the war with Mexico dragged 
on in an irregular way. Santa Anna could not, or 
at least did not, fully keep his promise. Meantime 
there was a great deal of planning and intriguing 
going on both in Texas and in the United States 
with the view of making Texas one of the States of 
our Union. It would be needless to give here the 
history of this intriguing. 

184 



Texas and Oregon 

A great many people of the North opposed the an- 
nexation of Texas, because it was sure to become a 
slave State and they were not in favor of increasing 
the number of slave States. But President Tyler was 
very much in favor of annexation, as also was his 
secretary of state, Mr. Upshur. But while the plans 
were maturing Mr. Upshur was killed, as we have 
noticed, by the bursting of the great gun on the 
Princeton. The next secretary of state was a man of 
world-wide fame — John C. Calhoun of South Caro- 
lina. He was also greatly in favor of annexation 
and in April, 1844, a secret treaty of annexation was 
made with Texas. This was laid before the Senate, 
but that body rejected it, and the Texas question 
was left over and became the chief issue in the presi- 
dential campaign of 1844. 

In that campaign James K. Polk of Tennessee 
was nominated for President by the Democrats, who 
favored annexation; and Henry Clay by the Whigs, 
who opposed it. Mr. Clay might have been elected 
had it not been for his " Alabama Letter." In the 
midst of the campaign, when his party was talking 
against annexation. Clay wrote a letter to a friend in 
Alabama saying that he was not specially opposed to 
annexing Texas and that if the matter could be taken 
out of politics he would be glad to see Texas come 
into the Union. This letter, which was printed in 
the newspapers, was not in agreement with Whig 
doctrine and it cost Mr. Clay many votes and per- 
haps the Presidency itself. 

The campaign of 1844 was an exciting one. It 

185 



A Guide to American History 

was the last figlit for the great office by Henry Clay, 
the gallant " Harry of the West," the '' Mill boy of 
the slashes/' And he lost this time as he had lost 
before. Polk was elected President and Texas, the 
" Lone Star State/' became a member of the Union 
within the following year. 

Texas is by far the largest State in the Union, a 
grand domain, an empire in extent But the trou- 
bles did not cease with annexation. There was a 
boundary dispute with Mexico that brought on war 
before it was settled. This we shall notice in our 
next chapter. 

Oregon^ in the Early Days 

In 1845 the term Oregon had a much more ex- 
tensive meaning than now. It included what is now 
the great States of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and 
a large part of southwestern Canada. 

From time immemorial this vast country had been 
occupied only by Indian tribes. But the time was 
now come when it was to become the home of civilized 
man. In 1792 Captain Robert Gray, in the ship 
Columbia, first discovered the mouth of the great 
river of the I^orthwest, sailed up it for thirty miles 
and gave it the name of his ship, the Columbia. 

When Thomas Jefferson became President he sent 
out the Lewis and Clark expedition to cross the con- 
tinent to the Pacific ^NTorthwest. With about thirty 
men they started on their tour in the spring of 1804 
and after a year and a half of travel through the 

186 



Texas and Oregon 

unbroken wilderness, reached the Pacific Coast. 
Here they spent a winter in log cabins of their own 
building, after which they returned to the United 
States. 

Both the United States and England claimed the 
great Oregon country. The claim of the United 
States was based chiefly on the Lewis and Clark 
expedition and the earlier discovery of the Columbia 
by Captain Gray. But this was not enough. There 
must be actual occupation of the country in order to 
hold it. And this began with the fur trader. Mr. 
Lewis in his published journal had shown what 
great opportunities there were for the fur trade in 
the E'orthwest. One of the first to respond was John 
Jacob Astor, a merchant prince of New York who 
was known in every seaport of the world. He sent 
out a party who founded a town at the mouth of the 
Columbia and named it Astoria. Soon after this a 
company of men went up the Columbia to found 
another trading post and at the place where the 
Snake River flows into it they found a stake driven 
into the ground and bound around it was a paper 
with this statement : " Know hereby that this coun- 
try is claimed by Great Britain." This reminds us 
of the plates buried along the Ohio by the French 
before the French and Indian War, as we have no- 
ticed in a preceding chapter. 

When the War of 1812 came the Hudson Bay 
Company, a great English fur-trading company, got 
possession of Astoria and for some years the whole 
Columbia Valley was under British control. But 

187 



A Guide to American History 

the final ownership of the country was not yet de- 
termined. Accordingly, a " joint occupation " was 
arranged between the United States and England in 
1818. By this, Americans or Englishmen could set- 
tle or trade in Oregon as they liked. This plan was 
continued for many years, but the time came when 
the ownership of the country must be settled. 

After the fur trader, the next class of white men 
to go to Oregon were the missionaries. A pretty 
story is related about the beginnings of mission work 
in Oregon. Eour Indians were sent by one of the 
Oregon tribes to far-away St. Louis to see General 
Clark whom they remembered as having visited their 
country (in the Lewis and Clark expedition) to ask 
for " the white man's book of heaven," as they called 
the Bible. They had heard of the Bible and the 
white man's religion from the fur traders. Two of 
these Indians died in St. Louis and one of the re- 
maining two died on the way back. 

This pathetic story was published in many re- 
ligious papers and it soon began to bear fruit. The 
various churches began to send missionaries. The 
best known of these is Marcus Whitman, who, after 
spending some time in Oregon, returned to the East 
for the purpose of awakening a greater interest in 
the work. He went back again with a number of 
helpers and ere long there were several flourishing 
Indian missions in Oregon. The Indians were 
taught religion and also to read and write, to till the 
soil and to raise stock. 

The older Indians as well as the children were 

188 



Texas and Oregon 

gathered in classes and taught small portions of the 
Bible that had been translated into their language 
and printed on a little printing press. 

The next class to go to Oregon was the permanent 
settlers. Great interest in that distant land had been 
spreading for some time and in 1838 an emigration 
society was formed in Massachusetts. Meetings 
were held in towns and cities to enlist settlers and 
many were found ready to go. In 1843 what was 
known as " The great migration " took place. 

In one company that left Missouri there were a 
thousand people who drove before them five thou- 
sand animals. At night they turned the animals 
loose to graze and made a circular inclosure with 
the wagons. In this circle they pitched their tents 
and built fires. After supper they retired to the 
tents and wagons for the night, a few men remain- 
ing on guard all night. At four in the morning the 
sharp crack of a rifle announced that sleeping time 
was over. In a few minutes all were up preparing 
breakfast and sixty men would start out to drive in 
the horses and cattle, some of which had strayed 
perhaps two miles. 

Soon the day's journey was begun and, but for a 
short rest at noon, they jogged along till the shades 
of evening brought them again to the camp fire. It 
took more than a hundred days for this company to 
reach their new home on the Pacific Coast. 

The saddest tragedy in the history of Oregon re- 
mains to be told. There is no nobler figure in the 
early history of that country than Marcus Whitman, 

189 



A Guide to American History 

the missionary. He was also a physician and in 1847 
when the measles broke out among the children he 
attended them, white and Indian children alike, with 
the same self-sacrifice that he had always shown. 
The white children recovered rapidly while many 
of the Indian children died. This led the Indians 
to believe that Whitman was a sorcerer and was 
causing their children to die. They conspired to 
kill him. One day they seized him, his faithful 
wife and seven other persons and put them to death 
with horrible tortures. These superstitious red men 
did not know that they were murdering their best 
friend. The tribe that committed the deed was made 
to suffer severely at the hands of the white settlers. 

" Fifty-four Forty or Fight " 

Oregon extended as far northward as the line of 
fifty-four degrees and forty minutes north latitude, 
to the boundary of Alaska, which belonged to Rus- 
sia. Several times the Americans offered to settle 
the boundary line at forty-nine degrees, the same as 
the northern boundary of the Louisiana Purchase. 
But England refused and insisted on the Columbia 
River as the boundary. 

The years passed and the country began to fill up 
with settlers, as we have noticed. The settlers were 
nearly all Americans and they cried loudly for the 
protection of their Government. 

Such was the condition at the opening of the pres- 
idential compaign of 1844. ]^ow it was thought that 

190 



Texas and Oregon 

as the country was filling np with Americans and as 
England had refused to accept the line of forty-nine, 
she should not have any of the Oregon country and 
that the United States should claim it all. The 
Democrats, who had nominated Mr. Polk, thereupon 
made a campaign cry, " Fifty-four forty or fight," 
which meant that we should fight England unless 
she left to us all of Oregon, to fifty-four forty. 

Mr. Polk was elected, but whether that campaign 
cry had much to do with the result or not is not 
known. At any rate, when Polk became President 
he gave up the hope of making the line fifty-four 
forty because England refused to yield. Nothing 
less than a war would have secured the whole country 
for either nation, and neither England nor the 
United States wished to go to war on account of 
Oregon. Indeed, America had good reasons for not 
going into a war with England at that time, for a 
war was brewing on the south, with Mexico. 

Accordingly, the two nations agreed to divide the 
Oregon country at forty-nine, each taking about 
half. Our portion, since divided into three great 
states — Oregon, Washington, and Idaho — is a region 
of wonderful possibilities. It is divided north and 
south by the Cascade Mountains, with such grand 
peaks as Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams; and east and 
west by the majestic Columbia River. For fruit 
and grain raising and for timber this great region 
is difficult to parallel. 



191 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE MEXICAN WAR AND CALIFORNIA 

THE American people love peace better than war 
and it is seldom that we engage in war. The 
only foreign war we had between that with England 
in 1812 and our war with Spain in 1898 was the 
Mexican War, which began in the spring of 1846 
and continued for a little more than a year. The 
war came on account of a boundary dispute between 
Texas and Mexico. The Americans won all the bat- 
tles and Texas gained her point in making her 
southern boundary the Rio Grande River. 

But the chief result of the war was the acquiring 
of California from Mexico by the United States. 
California, like Oregon, had a larger meaning than 
it has now. It included the present State of that 
name and also Arizona, E'evada and parts of Utah 
and 'New Mexico. The events of the Mexican War 
cluster about the names of two men — Zachary Taylor 
and Winfield Scott — and we shall treat it by giving 
a short biography of each. 

Zachary Taylor 

One of the heroes of the Mexican War, afterwards 
President of the United States, was Zachary Tay- 

192 




Mexican News. 



The Mexican War and California 

lor. He was born in Virginia in 1784. His father, 
who had been a soldier in the Revolution, moved with 
his family to Kentucky when the boy was but one 
year old. This was in the early days when nearly 
all of Kentucky was a dense wilderness and the 
farm on which Mr. Taylor settled had to be cleared 
of timbers before it could be used for raising crops. 
It was in Jefferson County near the Ohio River and 
here the boy Zachary grew to manhood, laboring on 
the farm in summer or hunting wild game in the 
forest and attending school sometimes a month or 
two in winter. To this outdoor life he attributed 
his splendid robust health when he became a man. 

There was a famous Indian hunter along the Ohio 
named Lewis Wetzel, who could load his gun while 
running. He was known far and near among the 
Indians as a man who could shoot while his gun was 
empty. One day not a great way from where the 
Taylors lived Wetzel was pursued by four Indians 
and he shot them all, one at a time, loading his 
gun while running. It was said that a number of 
young pioneers, including Zachary Taylor, then 
engaged Wetzel to teach them to load a gun while 
running. 

When Zachary Taylor was twenty-four years old 
he left the farm and entered the army. He was sent 
to IN'ew Orleans where he took the yellow fever but 
recovered with long and careful nursing. He served 
through the War of 1812 and attracted wide at- 
tention for defending a fort on the Wabash River 
in Indiana against an Indian attack. Taylor had 

193 



A Guide to American History 

fewer than fifty men and the Indians, several hun- 
dred in number, stormed his little wooden fort for 
seven hours, but were driven off. 

Many were the adventures of General Taylor dur- 
ing the long years he spent with the army, but we 
cannot recount them here. We must hasten on to 
the Mexican War. 

When this war was seen to be coming Taylor was 
sent to southern Texas with a small army, and after 
winning two trifling battles here and capturing Mat- 
amoros at the mouth of the Rio Grande, he moved 
up that great river to Monterey. Monterey was one 
of the strongest fortified cities in Mexico. The cita- 
del and the bishop's palace and many of the stone 
houses were manned with troops. It was September, 
1846, when General Taylor opened his batteries on 
the city, though he knew it would require a bloody 
siege to capture it. 

A large majority of Taylor's men were volunteers, 
men of other occupations, who had never been in bat- 
tle. The first hour of the first battle must be a fear- 
ful time for any man. 

One man, afterwards describing his thrilling ex- 
perience at Monterey, declared that when first the 
bullets came whizzing around him his impulse was 
to run away as fast as he could, but seeing that no 
others were running he stood still almost paralyzed 
with fear. Then a man was shot down by his side. 
He sprang to his comrade's assistance, but seeing 
that the man was killed and beyond the reach of aid, 
his next impulse was to avenge his death. All fear 

194 



The Mexican War and California 

left him in an instant. He seized his musket, rushed 
to the front and fought like a veteran. 

General Taylor was a man of common habits. He 
refused to wear the uniform and lived among his 
men faring as they fared. He was rugged and pow- 
erful, kind-hearted and humane, but fearless in bat- 
tle. He often rode along the fighting lines where 
the bullets whizzed around like hail. He was nick- 
named " Rough and Ready." His war horse was 
a splendid gray called " Old Whitey." At Monterey 
as he was riding along the line some one shouted, 
" Silence ! here comes old Zach, hurrah for old Zach ! 
Three cheers for old Rough and Ready," and three 
tremendous cheers rent the air. 

Monterey was soon taken and Zachary Taylor was 
soon known throughout the United States as one of 
the great heroes of modern times. 

Here let us relate an incident of a young man not 
yet known to the world, a young man who was to play 
a great part in a greater war — U. S. Grant. A reg- 
iment was near the heart of the city fighting des- 
perately when it was discovered that they were run- 
ning short of powder. The officer in command 
wished some one to go back and report the fact to 
General Taylor, but so dangerous was the task that 
he did not command any one to go. He called for 
a volunteer and Grant volunteered. On one side of 
the street through which he must pass were hun- 
dreds of Mexicans with muskets. Grant evaded 
them by hanging to one side of his horse. He threw 
one arm over the horse's neck and with one foot on 

195 



A Guide to American History 

the cantle of the saddle he swung his body down on 
the horse's side while the horse ran at its highest 
speed. The daring young soldier performed his 
task and came out without a scratch. 

J^ot long after the capture of Monterey General 
Taylor heard news from Washington that made him 
very unhappy. He was informed that he must give 
up two thirds of his army to General Winfield Scott, 
who was to lead an army into Mexico by way of Vera 
Cruz. Taylor yielded to his superiors like a true pa- 
triot ; but it was a bitter medicine to take. Here he 
was left in the heart of a hostile country with only 
a fraction of his former army; but strange to say, 
his greatest victory was yet before him. 

Now again we meet Santa Anna, the one we met 
ten years ago at the Alamo and San Jacinto. He 
was again President of Mexico and when he heard 
that Taylor was left in such a weakened condition, 
he collected an army of 20,000 Mexicans and went 
against him. The two armies met at Buena Vista, 
among the mountains. Taylor's army was only one 
fifth as large as the Mexican army. 

As the Mexican thousands were defiling around 
the base of the mountain, their bayonets gleaming in 
the sun, a horseman was seen galloping from their 
ranks bearing a white flag. He rode up to General 
Taylor and handed him a letter. It was a summons 
from Santa Anna to surrender his little army and 
save it from being cut to pieces and annihilated. 
The answer was in substance, " General Taylor never 
surrenders." This was on Washington's birthday, 

196 



The Mexican War and California 

1847. l^ext day the battle of Buena Yista was 
fought. 

Nobly and valiantly the little army fought from 
morning till night. At times it seemed that they 
would be overwhelmed by the Mexican legions, but 
in the end they won the day and held their ground. 
The Mexicans decamped during the night, leaving 
their dead and wounded. 

For some hours in the afternoon General Taylor 
occupied a commanding height in view of both 
armies. With his right leg thrown over the pommel 
of the saddle he sat on Old Whitey and watched 
every movement, his face changing between hope and 
fear as the fortunes of his army seemed to waver 
between defeat and victory. When he saw that the 
day was won tears of joy rolled do^vn his cheeks. 
This was Taylor's last battle of the war. But his 
fortune was made and within two years the Ameri- 
can people called him to the highest office within 
their power to bestow. 

Zachary Taylor was President but sixteen months 
when death claimed him, and as the funeral proces- 
sion, with its nodding plumes and mournful music, 
passed through the streets of Washington, Old 
Whitey was led behind the bier bearing an empty 
saddle. 

Wi]S"FiELD Scott 

Like Zachary Taylor, Winfield Scott was born in 
Virginia and was two years his junior. As a youth 
he studied law, but later decided to be a soldier. 

197 



A Guide to American History 

We have seen Scott in the War of 1812, and shall 
here relate one other incident of that conflict. 

It was at the battle of Queenstown Heights where 
the American army was defeated. General Scott 
wished to surrender his force. They were crouched 
under a cliff near the Niagara River. Scott sent 
several men, one after another, with a flag of truce 
to the British commander, but all were shot or cap- 
tured by the Indians. He then determined to go 
himself. Tying a white handkerchief to his sword, 
he took two men and crept up among the crags. 
Presently two big Indians, after firing several shots 
at them, ran and sprang upon them. Scott tried to 
explain to them the protection of a flag of truce, but 
they refused to understand and drew their knives. 
At that moment a British officer rushed forward and 
prevented a tragedy. 

Scott was taken to a village as a prisoner of war 
and confined in an inn. In a little while a message 
came to the sentinel that some one at the outer door 
wanted to see the " Tall American." Scott was a tall 
man and it was kno^vn that the message was for him. 
He went to the door and there stood the same two 
Indians that had tried to assassinate him while un- 
der the crags carrying a flag of truce. One of the 
Indians, a huge chief, asked the " Tall American '^ 
how many wounds he had received when under the 
crags, holding up his fingers to show how many 
times they had shot at him. He seized Scott by the 
arm to turn him around to look for shot marks. 
Scott was very indignant at such liberty and threw 

198 



The Mexican War and California 

the savage off with great force, saying, " Off, you 
villain ! You fired like a squaw ! " 

The Indians then drew their weapons and cried, 
'^ We kill you now.'' This is what they had come 
to do. Scott saw his peril, and seeing some prisoners' 
swords stacked near by, he seized one and held it 
ready to thrust. He knew he could kill one of the 
Indians, but the other would then doubtless kill him. 
The Indians hesitated, all three standing in the most 
tragic attitude with upraised weapons, when a British 
officer came by. Understanding the situation at a 
glance, he cried, " The guards ! " and seizing one 
Indian by the arm, pointed his pistol at the other. 
The Indians then turned on him, and Scott, deter- 
mined to save the oflScer's life as well as his own, was 
about to thrust his sword when the guards, who had 
heard the call, rushed up with fixed bayonets. The 
Indians were taken away and Scott was molested no 
more. He was taken to 'Nova. Scotia as a prisoner, 
but was later exchanged and did splendid service 
again before the close of the war. 

We must now hasten on to the Mexican War. 
Nearly forty years Scott had been in the army when 
this war broke out. His rank was higher than that 
of Taylor, and after Taylor had taken Monterey 
Scott came down and took a large part of his army, 
as we have noticed. He gathered an army of 12,000 
and sailed for Vera Cruz. 

Reaching the harbor early in March, 1847, he 
began to bombard the city. For two weeks the roar 
of artillery day and night, the screaming of shells 

199 



A Guide to American History 

through the air and their bursting on the streets of 
the city, made a scene of terrific grandeur. On 
March 29th the invading army marched through the 
streets and the American flag waved over the public 
buildings of Vera Cruz. 

The next thing was to march overland to the City 
of Mexico, the ancient city of the Montezumas, to 
march over the winding roads among the towering 
mountains by the same route taken by Cortez on a 
similar errand three hundred years before. But be- 
fore Scott reached the summit of the mountains, he 
met the enemy and fought a terrific battle. Santa 
Anna, after his defeat by Taylor at Buena Vista, 
had gathered his broken army and now stood in the 
way to dispute the march of General Scott. The two 
armies met under the shadow of a lofty hill called 
Cerro Gordo. 

Now occurred one of the great battles of the war — 
the battle of Cerro Gordo. The result was, as usual, 
an American victory. Santa Anna lost nearly half 
his army, most of whom were made captives. Santa 
Anna himself was almost captured. He started to 
flee in his carriage, but it was overturned, and he 
escaped astride a mule, leaving in the carriage his 
wooden leg, for he had lost a leg in battle some years 
before. 

Scott swept on up the mountains, capturing every 
town in the way, and in midsummer reached the sum- 
mit of the Cordilleras, 8,000 feet above the sea. 
Then began the descent toward the City of Mexico. 
In August several hard battles were fought, and in 

200 



The Mexican War and California 

September the ancient city of the Montezumas yield- 
ed to the conquerors from the North. The war was 
over and Mexico lay prostrate before the armies of 
the United States. 



The Golden State 

One of the greatest of our forty-six States is Cali- 
fornia, called the Golden State. At the time of this 
war it was an almost uninhabited region and belonged 
to Mexico. Oregon, as we have seen, had been partly 
settled before our second war with England — at a 
time when California was as little known as central 
Africa. But the time came when California, in a 
race with Oregon, won first honors, and never since 
then has Oregon overtaken her southern sister. 

In 1846 California was a wild region covered by 
gigantic forests, with a lonely settlement here and 
there. The two most prominent men in California 
were John C. Eremont and John A. Sutter. Fre- 
mont was destined to become far more prominent in 
the future. Ten years later he became the candidate 
of a great political party for President of the United 
States. Now he was an explorer of the far West. 
He had led a small band of sixty men (with 200 
horses) over the Eocky Mountains to the Pacific 
Coast. 

Sutter was a Swiss by birth, and had been in the 
continental wars of Europe. Eeceiving from the 
Mexican Government a large tract of land in Cali- 
fornia, he built a fort on it and called it by his oa\ti 

201 



A Guide to American History 

name — Sutter's Fort. He had several hundred men 
in his employ, many being Indians, and o\vned thou- 
sands of head of sheep and cattle. When Fremont 
came to the Sacramento Valley he was entertained 
at Sutter's Fort. He later decided to make a tour 
of the ISTorth, to traverse the dense wilderness to 
Oregon. 

Fremont and his party set out from California 
to Oregon in the spring of 1846. After many days' 
traveling they reached the shore of Great Klamath 
Lake, and here in the region of gigantic forests and 
snow-clad mountains they had an experience that 
none of them ever forgot. They saw two white men 
approaching them on horseback. The men proved 
to be agents of the United States Government and 
had traveled thousands of miles to bear dispatches 
to Fremont and letters from his family, whom he 
had not seen for a year. 

That night as Fremont remained awake to re-read 
his letters, while his men all lay asleep around their 
camp fires, he heard a strange commotion among their 
horses near by. He went to them, but the animals 
grew quiet and he went back, finished his reading 
and fell asleep. An hour or two later one of the 
party. Kit Carson, the famous explorer and mountain 
climber, was awakened by a gurgling sound and a 
groan. It was the groan of a man receiving a toma- 
hawk in his brain. There was no mistake. The 
Indians were upon them, how many they never knew. 
The men were all awake in an instant. They sprang 
to their feet and seized their weapons. The fight 

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The Mexican War and California 

was short and bloody. Several of the Indians were 
killed, the rest driven off. Three or four of the 
white men were killed. 

A few days later Kit Carson was saved from death 
by the voluntary act of a horse. It was Fremont's 
noble charger named El Toro del Sacramento. An 
Indian sprang from the bushes but ten feet away 
and drew his bow on Carson, who leveled his gun and 
pulled the trigger. The gun missed fire. Fremont 
was at hand with his horse. He touched the animal 
and it seemed to understand. It sprang upon the 
savage and bore him to the ground, and the hatchet 
of a Delaware Indian, who belonged to Fremont's 
party, did the rest. 

Before Fremont had gone far into Oregon he was 
urged to return to California to protect the American 
settlers there, as the Mexicans had grown hostile. 
He turned back and in a month all northern Cali- 
fornia was under his control. Southern California 
was also soon under American control. From IN^ew 
Mexico came General Stephen W. Kearny, sent by 
the United States to carry the flag to California, and 
from the sea came Commodore Stockton in a war 
vessel. The whole land, from the crest of the Rock- 
ies to the waves of the Pacific, with little fight- 
ing or bloodshed, fell into the hands of the United 
States. 

The secret object of the war was to secure the Cali- 
fornia country for the United States, and this object 
was now gained. We are all proud of California, 
grand, fertile, beautiful land of perpetual spring that 

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A Guide to American History 

it is; but few Americans are proud of the way in 
which we secured it. 

A few months after Scott entered the Mexican 
capital with his army, a treaty of peace was made 
between the two countries. Mexico received the sum 
of $15,000,000 and the United States received the 
whole California country. This was afterwards di- 
vided into several States and Territories. 

But the history of California had only begun. 
Mexico discovered too late that the land she had 
ceded was a land of gold. In the employ of John A. 
Sutter was a man named James W. Marshall. One 
day as they were digging a mill race on a branch of 
the American River, near the base of the Sierra 
l^evada Mountains, Marshall found little shining 
particles in the water that proved to be gold. The 
news soon spread and men in all walks of life left 
their occupations and hastened to the gold fields. 
Ships from every country were headed for the Pacific 
Coast. From the eastern States some came by way 
of Panama and the sea ; others crossed the plains and 
the Pocky Mountains to the land of gold. 

Thousands of men were soon searching the valleys 
and the mountains for the hidden treasure. Some 
gained fortunes, others met only disappointment, and 
returned home broken in health, or found a lonely 
grave in the wilderness. California grew in popula- 
tion as no other country had done, and within two 
years it entered the Union as a State. 



204 



CHAPTER XV 

A BATCH OF BIOGRAPHIES 

A GREAT writer had said that history is noth- 
•^*' ing more than an aggregation of biographies, 
and there is much truth in the saying, ^o one can 
understand history without a knowledge of the chief 
figures in public life, their motives and achievements. 
The lives of the greatest characters in our history — 
such as Washington, Franklin, Webster and Lincoln 
— are well known to every reader, or may easily be 
procured from any library. But there are many 
who may not have played a leading part in the great 
movements of history, but whose careers were none 
the less important and interesting. It is not so easy 
for the reader to procure biographies of this class. 
We, therefore, devote this chapter to a notice of a few 
of them, beginning with two notable foreigners. 

Jenny Lind 

One of the memorable incidents of the year 1850 
was the coming to America of Jenny Lind, the 
" Swedish ISTightingale," or the " Queen of Song," 
as she was often called. 

Jenny Lind was bom at Stockholm, Sweden, in 

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A Guide to American History 

1820. Her parents were very poor. In fact her 
father was not very industrious and her mother was 
obliged to earn most of the living by teaching. 

Jenny was a lovable child, with sparkling blue 
eyes and yellow wavy hair, though she was not con- 
sidered beautiful. She was a singer almost from in- 
fancy, and when at play she sang with the gayety of 
a bird. Long afterwards she said of her childhood : 
" I sang with every step I took and with every jump 
my feet made.'' She had a pet cat with a blue rib- 
bon around its neck, and she sang to the cat hour 
after hour. 

One day as she sat singing to her cat a lady from 
the Eoyal Opera House was passing by and heard 
the sweet, birdlike voice from the widow of their 
humble cottage. She was struck with the marvelous 
sweetness of the child-voice, the most wonderful she 
had ever heard. She made the acquaintance of the 
family, and said to Mrs. Lind that her daughter 
should by all means be educated for the stage. 

Mrs. Lind, however, had a prejudice against the 
stage and would not give her consent. But it was 
afterwards arranged that Jenny be educated at the 
expense of the Government. After several years of 
hard study and severe training, she made her dehut 
at the Royal Opera, at Stockholm, as a public singer. 
It was March 7, 1838, and all her life thereafter 
she held this date in sacred memory. She was timid 
and by no means sure of success when she went before 
the great audience that assembled to hear her, but 
after the first note all fear was gone. She knew her 

206 



A Batch of Biographies 

power. Years afterwards she said : ^^ I got up that 
morning one creature; I went to bed another crea- 
ture. I had found my power." The people were wild 
with enthusiasm over her wonderful voice, and her 
fame soon spread to foreign lands. In the great 
cities of Europe, Berlin, Vienna, London, she was 
called to sing and the crowds that gathered blocked 
the streets for many squares. !N^o greater reception 
could have been given a queen. 

I^ot only was Jenny Lind the greatest singer of 
her age; she was also a woman of the noblest and 
purest type. It was said that she had the manners 
of a princess, the simplicity of a child, and the good- 
ness of an angel. She earned vast sums of money 
and gave much more than half of it to the poor. She 
was a devout Lutheran, and her religion was deep as 
life itself. She declared that she took more pleasure 
in giving her money to the needy than in receiving 
the applause of the multitudes. Mendelssohn, the 
great composer, declared that he had never met in 
his life so noble, so true and real an art nature as 
Jenny Lind. Hans Christian Andersen, the famous 
fable writer, said that through Jenny Lind he first 
became sensible to the holiness of art. 

The fame of this great singer spread to America 
and Mr. P. T. Barnum secured her services for a 
tour of the United States. Barnum was noted for 
his humbugs, but in this instance he did a true ser- 
vice for the American people. Vast crowds of people 
lined the streets of New York city to greet the won- 
derful singer when she first landed. The tickets for 

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A Guide to American History 

the first concert were sold at auction, and some of 
them brought more than $600. Jenny's share of the 
first concert amounted to $10,000, and she gave 
every dollar of it to the charities of the city. 

As she proceeded from city to city the people gath- 
ered in uncounted thousands to see her pass along 
the streets and her concert halls were always packed. 
In Kochester, N. Y., there were some who bought 
standing room in a building across the street from 
the concert hall. It was said that any one who heard 
the voice of Jenny Lind continued to hear it ring in 
his ears to the end of his life. There was a pathetic 
something in her voice that moved an audience to 
tears — not tears of sadness, but of emotion. 

The great kindness of heart of Jenny Lind and her 
deep religious nature were as remarkable as her sing- 
ing. In America she not only gave a great stimulus 
to the study of music, she also left a chain of char- 
ities wherever she went. She loved to help the poor 
whenever she could. Many are the stories of her 
kindness. Here are a few: 

In Boston a working girl came to the ticket office, 
threw down three dollars and said, ^^ There goes half 
a month's savings, but I must hear Jenny Lind." 
The ticket agent told Jenny of the incident and she 
asked if he would know the girl again when he saw 
her. He answered that he would, and she said, 
^' Please, then, give her this twenty-dollar bill for 



me." 



At Bath, England, she saw an aged woman at the 
door of an almshouse and spoke to her, as she often 

208 



A Batcli of Biographies 

did to the unfortunate. The woman said, " I have 
lived a long time in the world, and I desire nothing 
before I die but to hear Jenny Lind." 

" And would it really make you happy ? " asked 
the stranger. 

" Aye, that it would, but poor folks such as us 
can't go to the playhouse, and I shall never see her." 

" Don't be so sure of that. Let us go into the 
house." As they entered and sat down Jenny sang 
one of her sweetest songs. The old lady was moved 
to tears and her visitor said, " Iv'ow you have heard 
Jenny Lind," and took her departure. 

In one city she heard of a young man who had 
intended to attend her concert, but fell sick and could 
not do so. She made a long journey through the 
city to find him. She found him lying on a couch 
and his wife sitting by. She introduced herself and 
told them her errand. She had come to sing for 
them — and did so. 

Jenny Lind's share of her earnings in America 
reached about $175,000, most of which she gave 
away. The American school children presented her 
with a beautiful patchwork quilt. This she admired 
very much and declared that she wished to have it 
buried with her. She spent the last years of her life 
in England, singing only now and then, always for 
charity, spending most of her time in religious work 
among the poor and wretched. Her beautiful life 
came to a close in 1887, and the patchwork quilt, 
which she had kept nearly forty years, was buried 
with her, as she had requested. 

209 



A Guide to American History 



Louis Kossuth 

Another foreigner visited our shores in 1851 and 
attracted almost as much attention as Jenny Lind — 
Louis Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot. Kossuth 
was born in 1802 and was of noble descent. While 
still a young man he became widely known as an 
unselfish and fearless advocate of reform in politics. 

Hungary was oppressed by the Austrian Govern- 
ment and Kossuth denounced the oppression with 
overpowering eloquence. Lie was thrown into prison 
by the tyrants who ruled over his country because 
he was a lover of liberty and had the courage to 
say so. For three years he languished in prison 
and on his release he again took up the cause of his 
people. 

The year 1848 was a notable year in Europe. 
There were revolutions (risings of the people for 
change of government) in various countries and 
among them was Hungary. The people of that coun- 
try determined to throw off the Austrian yoke, and 
one of the leaders of this movement was Louis Kos- 
suth. He was then a member of the Hungarian Diet, 
or Congress. He declared with burning eloquence 
that his people must strike for independence and 
they did. Kossuth was made dictator with absolute 
power. He soon had a large army in the field — too 
large to be overcome by the Austrians. It seemed 
that Hungary was about to win its entire independ- 
ence, and this would have made Kossuth a Washing- 

210 



A Batcli of Biographies 

ton in history. But at this point Austria called on 
Russia for aid and the Czar sent a great army against 
the Hungarians. 

Thus ended the hopes of Hungarian independence. 
Kossuth fled from his native land and took refuge 
in Turkey. The Austrian Government demanded 
that the Sultan of Turkey should give up Kossuth. 
The object v^as to bring him back and put him to 
death for treason and rebellion. 

Strange it seems to us that a man who gives his 
life to the holy cause of liberty should be the object 
of persecution in any country. When Austria and 
Russia demanded that this noble man be given over 
to the hands of his deadly enemies, England and the 
United States became interested and encouraged the 
Sultan not to yield. President Fillmore then invited 
Kossuth to visit America and sent a Government 
vessel to bring him. Austria did not like such a pro- 
ceeding, of course, but the American people did not 
care whether Austria liked it or not. 

Kossuth first went to England, where he was re- 
ceived with the highest honor by all classes of society. 
He then crossed the Atlantic and reached the United 
States in December, 1851. 'No other foreigner, ex- 
cept Lafayette and Jenny Lind, had ever received 
such an ovation as that given to Kossuth. People 
recalled the dark days of our own Revolution, when 
our fathers had fought in the glorious cause of liberty 
and won, while Kossuth had failed. The heart of 
the nation went out to him. The streets of the cities 
were thronged with multitudes wherever he went. 

211 



A Guide to American History 

Kossuth hats and Kossuth overcoats became the fash- 
ionable craze. 

In 'New York a great street parade was preceded 
by a mass meeting at Castle Garden and followed by 
an immense banquet, presided over by William Cul- 
len Bryant, the poet. Kossuth visited many cities 
and in each he addressed large crowds of people. He 
was a man of wonderful eloquence, and he spoke the 
English language as fluently as his own. 

But in the end his visit was a disappointment. 
His great object was to enlist the aid of our Govern- 
ment in defending down-trodden Hungary. This 
would have been against our policy, as laid down 
in Washington's proclamation of neutrality. Our 
course had always been to take no part in the wars 
and broils of Europe which did not concern our in- 
terests, and we could not make an exception in the 
case of Hungary. Kossuth had a long talk about 
the matter with Henry Clay and other leading 
statesmen, but received little encouragement. 

After spending several months in America, the 
great Hungarian returned to Europe, but not to his 
own land. He made his home in Turin, in northern 
Italy. Here he spent the evening of his life, study- 
ing and writing on the subject of human government, 
the undying flame of liberty ever burning in his 
soul. He died in 1894 at the great age of ninety-two 
years. The world has not forgotten him, and it 
never will. 

The career of this grand old man was by no means 
a failure. He was an example to the world of a 

212 



A Batcli of Biographies 

high-born patriot to whom liberty was dearer than 
life itself. And further, it was largely through his 
efforts and principles that Hungary later secured 
a larger degree of liberty than she enjoyed at the 
time of his exile. 

Lewis Cass 

Though not very well known to the ordinary reader 
of to-day, Lewis Cass was in his day one of the most 
prominent men in America. Like many of our lead- 
ing men he was a descendant of ancestors who came 
to ISTew England early in our colonial period. His 
father served under Washington and was in nearly 
all the battles fought on northern soil. He married 
and settled in Exeter, ]^. H., in 1781, and the follow- 
ing year Lewis was bom. 

In after years Lewis said to his friends that he 
literally saw the United States born. It will be re- 
membered that the framers of the Constitution de- 
cided that it should go into operation if nine States 
ratified it, and New Hampshire was the ninth State 
to do so. 

" It was in the summer of 1788," said Cass, " that 
!N"ew Hampshire ratified the Constitution, and the 
day was one of great rejoicing by the people. My 
mother held me in her arms at a window from which 
I saw the bonfires in the streets and heard the shouts 
of the people." 

In the early nineties Mr. Cass left his little family 
for a time to serve in the Indian wars in Ohio, under 
General Anthony Wayne. Here he, like many an- 

213 



A Guide to American History 

other, became fascinated with the attractions of the 
frontier ; he went back to !N^ew Hampshire and moved 
with his family to Ohio. Lewis was a lad of seven- 
teen when he came to Marietta and joined the colony 
that had been founded by Rufus Putnam. Here he 
soon began the study of law. 

The family moved up the Muskingum and located 
on a farm near Zanesville. Lewis also came to that 
city, then a little frontier village, with streets lined 
with stumps and underbrush, and began the practice 
of his profession. He was the first lawyer to be ad- 
mitted to the bar in the newly formed State of Ohio. 
The frontier lawyer in those days had no easy time. 
Frequently Lewis Cass traveled on horseback or on 
foot through the forest to some distant county seat 
to try a case. He also spent much of his time on his 
father's farm. One day a friend from the East came 
to see him and found him pounding corn in a hollow 
stump near his father's door. In the absence of a 
mill the pioneer would reduce his corn to meal in 
this way. 

Lewis Cass was elected to the State legislature 
while still a very young man, and an occasion soon 
arose by which he attracted national attention. It 
was at this time that Aaron Burr was hatching his 
plot along the Ohio River to sever the Union, as was 
believed, and to set up a new nation in the West. 
And it was Cass who drew up a resolution in the 
legislature, which was passed, to seize Burr's boats 
at the mouth of the Muskingum. This was done by 
the State militia, and President Thomas Jefferson 

214 



A Batch of Biographies 

acknowledged that it was the first blow struck against 
Burr's conspiracy. 

President Jefferson did not forget the part played 
by young Cass in the legislature and soon afterwards 
appointed him a United States marshal. 

A few years later came the War of 1812. Early 
in the spring of that year Ohio raised three regiments 
of soldiers and Lewis Cass was made a general and 
put in command of one of them. He was sent !N"orth 
with his regiment to join General Hull, who was in 
command of Detroit. A few days before this a little 
vessel, steaming up the Detroit River to bring pro- 
visions to Hull, was captured by the British, who 
occupied Fort Maiden on the east bank of the river. 
It was decided to send a man from Detroit to the 
British fort to ask for the release of the prisoners 
who had been captured with the American vessel. 

General Cass was chosen for the task. He crossed 
the river and approached the British fort bearing a 
flag of truce. Met by the guards, he was asked what 
was his errand. He told them and they blindfolded 
him and led him within the fort to the commanding 
officer. A custom of warfare is to blindfold a man 
who goes on an errand within the enemy's lines, so 
that he cannot carry any important information back 
to his people. 

Cass was not successful in securing the release of 
the prisoners, and soon after his return to Detroit 
the American army crossed the river to attack Fort 
Maiden. Cass and the other young officers were very 
eager for the attack, but Hull seemed afraid, and 

215 



A Guide to American History 

after hovering abont for a few days, led his army 
back to Detroit. Cass was filled with disgust at such 
action, and this was increased tenfold when, a short 
time afterwards, Hull surrendered Detroit and all 
Michigan to the British, without striking a blow. 
Cass declared that he would never hand over his 
sword to a British officer and broke it across a stone. 

When the people of Ohio and Kentucky heard of 
the disgraceful surrender they were furious, and the 
young men volunteered in such numbers that they 
could not all be accepted in the army. The result 
was that the British could hold Michigan but little 
more than a year, when it came again in the posses- 
sion of the United States. General Cass was then 
appointed Governor of Michigan, and he held the 
position for eighteen years. 

A more vigorous governor than General Cass 
proved to be could not be found. Many of the set- 
tlers were French and their methods of farming were 
so crude that they were on the point of starvation 
half the time and Congress had to appropriate money 
to aid them. Cass did all in his power to induce 
more American settlers to come to Michigan ; but in 
some way the people of the East had come to believe 
that Michigan was a barren, uninhabitable country, 
and few would venture to remove thither. This false 
impression kept Michigan back for many years, but 
when the people discovered the truth, that southern 
Michigan was one of the finest farming regions in the 
United States, they settled there in large numbers 
and in 1837 Michigan became a State of the Union. 

216 



A Batch of Biographies 

While Governor of the Territory Cass had to deal 
with Indian tribes on all sides. He made many 
treaties with them and usually kept them in a friend- 
ly spirit. He made many long journeys through the 
wilderness to learn about the country and to make 
himself acquainted with the wants of the natives. 
He was borne across lake and stream in Indian ca- 
noes, and often he spent the night in their wigwams 
and ate of their scanty meals. On one of these trips 
he went far into the Northwest, almost to the source 
of the Mississippi. On this tour he had an exciting 
experience. 

Near the head of Lake Michigan Cass wished to 
make a treaty with an Indian tribe; but the tribe 
was hostile and claimed allegiance to England. In 
a long parley with the chiefs Cass told them that 
they were on American soil and that he intended to 
place a garrison there. The chiefs were angry. They 
withdrew and after a short consultation came out of 
their tents and raised a British flag in an open place 
in view of Cass and his party. This meant defiance, 
and an attack was imminent. Cass now did a bold 
thing. He walked unarmed right to the British flag, 
hauled it down and trampled on it. The Indians were 
so amazed at so brave an act by a man whose party 
numbered scarcely one tenth of their own that they 
could not attack him. In fact they signed the treaty 
just as he dictated it. Tor years afterwards the 
members of Cass's party told of this deed as the brav- 
est they had ever witnessed. 

But we must hurry on. So honest and so able 

217 



A Guide to American History 

had the governorship of Cass been that he was called 
higher. In 1831 he became secretary of war in the 
Cabinet of President Jackson. Here he served with 
much ability for five years. But his health began 
to decline. He had spent many years in the active, 
wild life of the Michigan forests and now he found 
the confining oSice work in Washington irksome. 
Twice he offered to resign from the Cabinet, but 
the President refused to let him go. But in 1836 
he determined to leave the Cabinet and President 
Jackson offered to make him minister to France. 
This offer he accepted, and in the autumn of that 
year he arrived in Paris. Here he remained for sev- 
eral years and became an intimate friend of the 
French king. While in Paris Cass wrote a very 
interesting book entitled " France, its King, Court, 
and Government.'' 

When General Cass returned to the United States, 
in 1842, he was received with much popular applause 
in Boston, l^ew York and other cities. He had be- 
come one of the most popular leaders in the nation 
and was widely spoken of for the Democratic nomina- 
tion for the Presidency in 1844. But Mr. Polk of 
Tennessee was nominated and Cass entered the 
United States Senate. In that body he became a 
leader from the start, and before the next four years 
had passed he was looked upon as the leading Demo- 
crat of the country. 

In 1848 he was nominated for the Presidency, 
but owing to the great popularity of old " Kough and 
Keady'' Zachary Taylor, Cass was defeated. He 

218 



A Batcli of Biographies 

continued in the Senate nearly ten years longer, when 
he was called in 1857 to enter the Cabinet of Presi- 
dent Buchanan. This was his last public service, 
after which he retired to Detroit to spend the evening 
of his life, where he had spent so many years of his 
young manhood. He was a stanch friend of the 
Union during the Civil War and rejoiced at its close 
that the country was not divided. He died in 1866 
at the age of eighty-four years. 

Four years after Cass's defeat for President in 
1848 he had again been urged for the nomination, 
but was defeated in convention by a man from his 
native Stat^ of Xew Hampshire, to whom next we 
turn our attention. 



Franklin Pierce 

Some of our Presidents will fill but an obscure 
place in history as compared with the more promi- 
nent ones. We do not always elect our greatest 
statesmen to the great office ; but then it must be re- 
membered that no ordinary man could be elected at 
all, or even nominated by a great party. 

Franklin Pierce was one of our less prominent 
Presidents who has not left a great name in history. 
He was the son of a soldier of the Revolution and 
was born in New Hampshire in 1804. His father 
rose to prominence and was twice elected Governor 
of the State. 

The boy Franklin received his first lessons in pa- 
triotism sitting at the family hearthstone listening 

219 



A Guide to American History 

to his father and his Revolutionary comrades talk 
over the joys and sorrows of a soldier's life — the 
march and the camp fire, the bugle call to battle, and 
at last the home-coming after the long war was over 
and independence had been won. 

Franklin's mother was a Christian woman of the 
highest character, and she instilled into her boy a 
spirit of gentleness, courtesy, and manliness that char- 
acterized him through life. In 1820 he entered Bow- 
doin College, and as a student he was always win- 
ning and popular and stood high in his class. Among 
his fellow students were I^athaniel Ha^vthorne and 
Henry W. Longfellow. After graduating he applied 
himself to the study of law, and soon after being ad- 
mitted to the bar he was sent to the State legislature. 
Here he served a few years, when, at the age of twen- 
ty-nine, he was elected to Congress, and after serving 
four years in the House, he was elected to the United 
States Senate. 

Pierce entered the Senate at the beginning of the 
Presidential term of Martin Van Buren, March 4, 
1837. He was then only thirty-three, the youngest 
man in the Senate. The great leaders in the Senate 
at that time were Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, John 
C. Calhoun, Thomas H. Benton, and James Buchan- 
an. Among such men the young senator from I^ew 
Hampshire could not expect to make much of a fig- 
ure. Pierce never became a great leader, but he was 
a hard worker, a fiuent speaker, and always courteous 
to an opponent. He was a faithful adherent of the 
Democratic Party. 

220 



A Batch of Biographies 

Mr. Pierce did not remain many years in the Sen- 
ate. He resigned owing to the failing health of his 
wife. Soon after this he declined a nomination for 
governor of ^N'ew Hampshire, and when Mr. Polk 
became President, in 1845, he offered Mr. Pierce a 
place in his Cabinet ; this offer was also declined. 

But when the Mexican War broke out Pierce heed- 
ed the call of his country. He had heard much about 
warfare, as we have seen, when a boy, listening to 
his father and the neighbors talking about the Kevo- 
lution. l^ow he volunteered and the President soon 
appointed him a general. He set out for Mexico in 
May, 1847, to join General Scott. But Scott had 
already captured Vera Cruz and fought the battle of 
Cerro Gordo, and was now far on his mountain 
journey toward the City of Mexico. 

With an army of 2,400 men General Pierce landed 
on the Mexican coast and began his march up the 
steep and rugged mountains. The weather was so 
hot that they could not endure the tropical sun at 
midday. They would begin their march at daybreak 
and after several hours' marching they would stop 
for five or six hours in the middle of the day, then 
resume their journey in the evening. Several times 
the army was fired on by Mexican mountain rangers, 
and at one time a musket ball passed through the rim 
of General Pierce's hat. 

General Scott knew that Pierce was coming with 
reenforcements and waited for him at the town of 
Puebla. Here Pierce joined him on August Y, and 
Scott decided to advance on the City of Mexico. 

221 



A Guide to American History 

The next item on the programme proved to be a 
sharp battle at Contreras, in which General Pierce 
almost lost his life. The irrepressible Santa xinna 
whom we have met in Texas, at Buena Vista, and at 
Cerro Gordo, now confronted the Americans with an 
army. As Pierce was riding at the head of his troops 
over a rough place in the face of the enemy's fire, his 
horse fell among the rocks and almost crushed its 
rider. He was severely hurt and stunned. An offi- 
cer ran to his assistance, and as he was carrying the 
general to the shelter of a rock, a shell buried itself 
at their feet and exploded, covering them with stones 
and sand. The general's horse had broken its leg 
and had to be killed. But an hour later, when he was 
partially recovered from the shock, he was assisted 
in mounting another horse and a few minutes later 
he was again in the hottest of the battle, where he 
remained to the end of the day. 

That night Pierce slept on an ammunition wagon 
while his men lay down on the wet ground, soaked 
by a dashing rain. At one o'clock in the morning he 
received orders from General Scott to put his brigade 
in a new position and be ready to reopen the battle 
at daybreak. There was no more sleep that night 
for Pierce and his army, and the fight was renewed 
with great vigor in the morning. While the battle 
was raging Pierce met General Scott, who, seeing that 
he was still suffering greatly from his fall, said to 
him, 

" Pierce, my dear fellow, you are badly injured. 
You are not fit to be in the saddle." 

222 



A Batch of Biographies 

" Yes, General, in a case like this I am," answered 
Pierce. 

Scott looked at him for a moment and said, " Gen- 
eral Pierce, you are rash. I fear we shall lose you. 
It is my duty to order you back to Florida." 

But Pierce pleaded so earnestly to be permitted 
to remain that his chief consented. Again he rode 
into the battle, but before night he was found lying 
by a ditch almost unconscious from pain and fatigue. 
Some soldiers started to carry him to a place of 
safety, but he said faintly, 

" l^Oy let me lie here where I can see all." 

This was at the battle of Cherubusco, one of the 
bloodiest of the war. The Americans won and the 
war was soon over. General Pierce slowly recovered 
and a few months later we find him again with his 
wife and child among the peaceful hills of Xew 
Hampshire. 

A few years later — in 1852 — these two soldier- 
friends, Winfield Scott and Pranklin Pierce, became 
opposing candidates for the Presidency of the United 
States. Scott was nominated by the Whigs and 
Pierce by the Democrats. Pierce was a very popular 
man. He had made friends on every side and he 
was elected by a very large majority. 

A few days before the inauguration, Mr. and Mrs. 
Pierce met with a great sorrow. Their only child, 
a bright and lovable boy of ten years, was killed in 
a railroad accident, right before their eyes, while 
they themselves narrowly escaped the same fate. 

As President, Franklin Pierce soon began to lose 

223 



A Guide to American History 

his popularity. One cause was that he made too 
many promises which he could not fulfill. Another 
was that on the great slavery question that agitated 
the country he seemed to sympathize with the South. 
The people of the North lost confidence in him, and 
the South, seeing that his popularity was on the 
wane, was not at all enthusiastic for his renomina- 
tion. The Democrats believed that, in order to win 
the election of 1856, it would be necessary for them 
to carry Pennsylvania, and they felt that there was 
but one man in the party, himself a Pennsylvanian, 
who could win in that State. That man was 

James Buchanan 

Another of our Presidents who cannot be placed 
in the highest rank was James Buchanan. For more 
than forty years Mr. Buchanan had been in public 
life when he was nominated for the highest office in 
the land, in 1856. He was born in a cabin in 1791 
near Mercersburg, Pa., on the eastern slope of the 
Alleghany Mountains, in a ^^ romantic spot where 
the towering summits rose grandly all around." 

James's father was Scotch-Irish, he had come to 
America after the Revolution, had married a farmer's 
daughter and settled in this lonely spot. When 
James was eight years old the family moved to the 
town of Mercersburg, where James was placed in 
school. He was a bright boy and learned rapidly. 
At the age of fourteen he was sent to Dickinson Col- 
lege, at Carlisle. At college he showed unusual tal- 

224 



A Batch of Biographies 

ent and had no superior in application to his studies. 
In 1809 he was graduated with the highest honors 
of his class. Three years later he became a lawyer 
and settled in Lancaster. Here he rose in his profes- 
sion and soon became one of the leading lawyers in 
Pennsylvania. 

In 1820 James Buchanan was elected to Congress 
from his district and was reelected regularly until 
he had served ten years. In Congress he was faith- 
ful and industrious, but never spectacular. When 
General Jackson became President he appointed Mr. 
Buchanan Minister to Russia, where he remained 
four years and returned to the United States. 

Almost immediately after his return he was elected 
to the United States Senate. 

As a debater in the Senate he was always to be 
found on the side of President Jackson. He was a 
strong debater, but was not a great national leader, 
as compared with Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and 
John C. Calhoun. 

When James K. Polk became President, in 1845, 
he chose Mr. Buchanan for the foremost place in his 
Cabinet, that of secretary of state. In this oflSce 
Buchanan served during the whole of Polk's admin- 
istration. 

The secretary of state had control, under the di- 
rection of the President, of all foreign relations, and 
during these four years there were several great ques- 
tions to be settled. One of these was the making 
of the treaty with Mexico at the close of the war, and 
another was the settling of the Oregon boundary with 

225 



A Guide to American History 

England. Buchanan managed these matters with 
much ability and to the satisfaction of everyone. 

When Franlslin Pierce became President he ap- 
pointed Mr. Buchanan Minister to England and for 
the next four years he made his home in London. 
Here he enjoyed life and was very popular in the 
high political and social circles of the British metrop- 
olis. 

But with all the high positions filled by James Bu- 
chanan up to this time, he was to enjoy still higher 
honors. When his party was ready to choose a can- 
didate for President in 1856, it turned spontaneously 
to Buchanan. 

The fierce conflicts of the preceding four years had 
weakened every other leading Democrat; but Bu- 
chanan, being absent from the country, had not suf- 
fered from this cause and his popularity was not di- 
minished. He was nominated by the convention and 
the newly founded Republican party nominated John 
C. Fremont for President. 

Buchanan won in the election and the next four 
years he spent in the White House in Washington. 
He was a bachelor, and the mistress of the White 
House during the four years was his accomplished 
niece, his adopted daughter, Harriet Lane. While 
he was Minister to England she was always with him 
and by her wit and beauty she attracted much atten- 
tion. Queen Victoria showed special preference to 
Miss Lane. In Paris and other cities where she 
went with her uncle she was called the girl queen. 
Oxford University bestowed on Mr. Buchanan the 

226 



A Batcli of Biographies 

degree of Doctor of Laws (and on the poet Tenny- 
son the same day), and when Miss Lane entered 
the hall the whole student body rose and cheered. 

In the White House Harriet Lane came near 
reaching the social height attained by the famous 
Dolly Madison. Warships, societies, articles of ap- 
parel and ornament were given her name. It has 
been said, and is probably true, that no other young 
woman in the country had ever received equal honor 
with Harriet Lane. While she was mistress of the 
White House the Prince of Wales, now King Ed- 
ward VII of England, visited this country and was 
entertained by the President and his accomplished 
niece. And he spoke highly of the charming grace 
of his popular hostess. 

But notwithstanding all this, the Presidency of 
Mr. Buchanan was not very successful. The great 
slavery subject, including the troubles in ^^ Bleeding 
Kansas,'' kept the country in a turmoil, and Presi- 
dent Buchanan, though a ]N'orthern man, generally 
gave his sympathies to the slave holders. When the 
Southern States began to secede from the Union, Bu- 
chanan was in a dilemma. He quibbled and hesi- 
tated not knowing what to do, and thus he lost the 
respect of both sides. But when the war broke out, 
after his term of oflSce was over, he was heartily in 
favor of saving the Union at any cost. 

Hareiet Beechek Stowe 
The most popular book ever written in America 
was written by a woman. The woman was Harriet 

227 



A Guide to American History 

Beecher Stowe and the book was " Uncle Tom's 
Cabin.'' She was bom in Litchfield, Ct., in 1811. 
Her father was the famous preacher, Lyman Beecher, 
and her brother was the more famous Henry Ward 
Beecher. 

When Harriet was but four years old a great sor- 
row, the death of her mother, came into her young 
life. In after years she fondly recounted the few 
little incidents about her mother which she remem- 
bered. Among other things she remembered was the 
funeral — ^the weeping friends in mourning, the sub- 
dued conversation, the uncontrollable grief of her 
father, the black hearse with its nodding plumes that 
bore the loved one away to her last resting place. 
Little Henry Ward was too young to understand, and 
he continued his innocent, frolicking play in igno- 
rant joy. 

Mrs. Beecher left several sons, and her wish that 
all of them enter the ministry was carried out. And 
they all testified in later life that all through their 
childhood and youth they were strengthened against 
the temptations of evil by the sacred memory of 
their departed mother. 

Soon after her mother's death Harriet was taken 
by an aunt to her home for a long stay. They trav- 
eled all day in a wagon and arrived after dark at a 
little white farmhouse. This was to be her home 
for many months. Here she listened every evening 
to the broken voice of her good, white-haired grand- 
mother reading from her Bible and prayer book; 
here, with the coming of spring, she strolled over 

228 



A Batch of Biographies 
» 

the grassy fields and sand hills, as happy as the hirds 

which she imitated in their songs of gladness. 

At length Harriet was taken back to her home at 
Litchfield, and two years after her mother's death she 
had a stepmother, whom she described in later years 
as a sweet, lovable woman, a true mother in every re- 
spect. Harriet was sent to the academy in Litchfield 
as soon as she was old enough to be admitted, and at 
the age of twelve she wrote an essay, which was read 
at a public exhibition. The subject was certainly an 
unusual one for a child : " Can the Immortality of the 
Soul be proved from the Light of Nature ? " Her 
father, who was present at the reading, could scarcely 
believe that his little daughter had written it. 

Sometimes, in the golden October days, Harriet ac- 
companied her father and brothers on long excursions 
to the woods to gather nuts, and sometimes to a fish- 
ing lake where she was often as successful as they and 
on her return home displayed her string of fish in 
triumph to everyone she saw. 

Of books Harriet had few in girlhood. Her father 
was a Puritan of the strict kind, and his library con- 
tained little aside from learned works on theology. 
Harriet one day found an old copy of " The Arabian 
IN'ights," a treasure that gave her many a day of en- 
tertainment. 

Sir Walter Scott was at this time writing his 
novels, but few of the Puritans approved of reading 
novels of any kind, and at first Sir Walter was barred 
from the Beecher home. But one day Dr. Beecher 
said to his children: 

229 



A Guide to American History 

" You may read Scott's novels, if you like. I have 
always disapproved of novels as trash, hut in these 
there are real genius and culture. Yes, you may 
read them." 

And they did read them. In one summer the 
Beecher children went through " Ivanhoe " seven 
times. 

Lord Byron was a prominent British poet at this 
time. Harriet one day came in possession of " The 
Corsair,'' one of his poems, and for many hours, 
she entertained herself wdth it. Dr. Beecher w^as 
also a great admirer of Byron's genius, and when 
the word came that Byron had died in Greece, the 
family was deeply moved. " Oh, I'm sorry Byron 
is dead ! I did hope he would live to do some- 
thing for Christ," said Dr. Beecher. He also ex- 
pressed deep regret that he could not have seen the 
poet while he lived and presented to him his views 
of religious truth. This deep religious conviction, 
coupled with admiration for genius, pervaded the 
whole Beecher family. 

When Harriet was about fourteen she was sent to 
Hartford to school. She began the study of Latin 
and wdthin a year she translated some of the poems 
of Ovid into English verse. The work was consid- 
ered very creditable and was read publicly at the 
final exhibition. She also w^rote a drama at this 
time which showed great maturity of mind for one 
of her age. She was at this period intensely anxious 
to become a poet. 

For some years Harriet was quite unhappy. She 

230 



A Batcli of Biographies 

looked within and brooded over herself. She was 
naturally gay and joyous, but the morbid feature of 
the Puritanic religion took a deep hold on her, and 
her fear that she was incapable of being sufficiently 
sorrowful for her sins gave her great uneasiness. 
But by the time she was twenty she had a new awak- 
ening. Her eyes were opened to new light. She re- 
solved that she would not sit in a corner and brood; 
she would go into society; she would spend her en- 
ergy in being kind to others; she would force her- 
self to forget the unpleasant ihings of the past and 
remember only the good. Henceforth she was happy 
and cheerful. 

After fifteen years' service in Litchfield, her father 
was called to a prominent church in Boston. Here 
he remained but six years, when he was called to 
Cincinnati, Ohio, to become president of Lane Semi- 
nary, just founded in that city. Harriet went also 
to Cincinnati with the family intending to teach 
school. They went by stage to Wheeling, where they 
took a river boat to their new place of abode. They 
moved into a house on Walnut Hills, now one of 
the fine residence sections of the city. Of the house 
in which they lived Harriet wrote to a friend in 
Connecticut : ^^ The house we are at present inhabit- 
ing is the most inconvenient, ill-arranged, good for 
nothing and altogether to be execrated affair that 
was ever put together.'' About her little four-year- 
old brother Jamie, she humorously writes: 

" Speaking of the temptation of cities, I have much 
solicitude on Jamie's account lest he should form 

231 



A Guide to American History 

improper intimacies, for yesterday we saw him par- 
ading by the house with his arm over the neck of a 
great hog, apparently on the most amicable terms; 
and the other day he actually got on the back of one 
and rode some distance." 

Harriet was soon busy teaching in the Queen City, 
but it was not long until she found her true occupa- 
tion. The Western Magazine offered a prize of fifty 
dollars for the best story; she entered the contest 
and won easily. From this time she wrote many 
short stories and sketches. One of her dearest friends 
in Cincinnati was Mrs. Eliza Stowe, a bright young 
woman of about her own age and wife of Prof. Cal- 
vin E. Stowe and with her and her learned husband 
Harriet spent many a happy hour. 

In 1834, after two years in her new home, Harriet 
Beecher made a trip to l^ew England to see her 
brother Henry Ward graduate at Amherst College. 
When she returned to the West she found Professor 
Stowe in the deepest sorrow. His young wife had 
died. Harriet extended to him her genuine sym- 
pathy and it seemed to relieve his loneliness to talk 
with her, the bosom friend of his departed wife. 
Their friendship grew and two years later they were 
married. Thus Harriet Beecher took the name of 
Harriet Beecher Stowe, the name by which she be- 
came known throughout the world. Soon after his 
marriage Professor Stowe was chosen by the Ohio 
legislature to go to Europe to study the school sys- 
tems abroad for the benefit of the public schools of 
Ohio. He answered the summons, and, not able to 

232 



A Batch of Biographies 

take his young wife with him, they were separated 
for a time. 

It was ahout this time that Mrs. Stowe hegan seri- 
ously to study the slavery question. Just across the 
Ohio from Cincinnati was Kentucky, a slave State, 
and she had been a guest on a large estate where she 
saw many phases of slave life. One of the students 
of Lane Seminary had lectured in the South against 
slavery and had made some converts. Among them 
was James G. Birney, who freed his slaves, moved 
to Cincinnati and started an anti-slavery paper. The 
sympathizers with slavery in Cincinnati were very 
numerous, and they incited a mob which broke into 
Mr. Birney's printing office and destroyed his press. 
Mrs. Stowe had received runaway slaves into her 
own home; she had heard the woeful cry of an op- 
pressed race, and all these things had sunk deeply 
into her soul. 

"Now came a change in the life of Mr. and Mrs. 
Stowe. Several children had been bom to them and 
their salary was too small to make ends meet. For 
seventeen years Professor Stowe had served Lane 
Seminary, then came a call to a professorship from 
Bowdoin College, at Brunswick, Me., from which he 
had graduated. He accepted and moved East. 

It was soon after reaching Brunswick that the 
great life work of Mrs. Stowe began — the writing 
of " Uncle Tom's Cabin." Amid many household 
cares the story shaped itself in her mind and was 
written in weekly installments and first published 
as a serial in the National Era of Washington. It 

233 



A Guide to American History 

came out in book form in March, 1852. Within a 
few days ten thousand copies were sold and more 
than three hundred thousand within a year. 

Soon after the book was published Mrs. Stowe was 
in Brooklyn, at the home of her brother, Henry Ward 
Beecher. Jenny Lind was again singing in New 
York. Hearing of Mrs. Stowe's presence, she sent 
her an autograph note, enclosing tickets to her con- 
cert. Mrs. Stowe answered in a note of thanks and 
a copy of '^ Uncle Tom^s Cabin." She attended the 
concert and afterwards wrote of the great Swedish 
singer : '' We have heard Jenny Lind, and the af- 
fair was a bewildering dream of sweetness and beauty. 
. . . She had the artless grace of a little child, 
the poetic effect of a wood nymph. . . . She is a 
noble creature." 

In " Uncle Tom's Cabin " we have a picture of 
slave life, of an institution of the past, that can be 
found nowhere else. Who can read of the pathetic 
life and death of Uncle Tom and of little Eva, of 
the brutal Legree, of the philosophic indolence of 
St. Clair, of the irrepressible Topsy — who can read 
these characters as Mrs. Stowe sketched them and 
ever forget the picture ? 

The book sold rapidly in England and public meet- 
ings were held in many English towns and addresses 
adopted and sent to the author. The book was trans- 
lated into every modern European language and was 
sold by the hundred thousands. Mrs. Stowe wrote 
many other books, but none to compare with this in 
popularity. She made several trips to Europe and 

234 



A Batch of Biographies 

was received with high honors in every class of soci- 
ety. She rejoiced to see the downfall of slavery and 
received many congratulations for the part she had 
played in bringing freedom to a downtrodden race. 
Mrs. Stowe lived to a serene old age, dying in 1896 
at the age of eighty-five years. Her last years were 
spent in Hartford, Ct., and in Florida where also 
she maintained a home. 



Salmois- Portland Chase 

One of the strong characters during the Civil War 
and the years just preceding was Salmon P. Chase, 
who was bom in 'New Hampshire in 1808. When 
the boy was but nine years old his father died, leav- 
ing a widow and ten children, some of whom were 
grown. The younger children, among them Salmon, 
were kept in school. 

Salmon had an uncle. Philander Chase, who was 
a bishop in the Episcopal Church. He was located 
in Ohio, and after going to England to raise funds, 
he founded Kenyon College at Gambler, Ohio. In 
1820 he took little Salmon, now a boy of twelve 
years, to this new State on the frontier. At Worth- 
ington, near Columbus, the bishop had a school and 
Salmon spent two years here doing farm work and 
attending school. 

At the end of this time Bishop Chase was elected 
president of Cincinnati College and he took his 
nephew with him to Cincinnati where he entered 
the college as a student. A year later, however, the 

235 



A Guide to American History 

bishop resigned his office and Salmon returned to 
his home in New Hampshire. He then entered 
Dartmouth College, which was near his birthplace, 
and was graduated in 1826. 

After his graduation Chase went to Washington 
City to start a private school, a " select classical 
school,'' but when he came to open it there was but 
one pupil. 

Chase was discouraged and, as he had an uncle, 
another brother of his father, in the United States 
Senate, he applied to him for a government clerk- 
ship. The uncle advised him never to enter the gov- 
ernment service and offered him fifty cents to buy a 
spade — a hint probably that he had better work on 
a farm than to become a government clerk. 

But the youth made no use of the spade. He suc- 
ceeded in his school project and for three years he 
taught successfully in the capital city, living in the 
family of William Wirt, attorney-general of the 
United States. Those early years in Washington 
were useful to young Chase, as he learned much of 
national affairs and met many public men, though he 
little dreamed that many of his later years would be 
spent in high official life in that city. 

Chase had a laudable ambition to be somebody of 
importance in the world, but at times he seemed to 
despair of the future. We find in his diary the fol- 
lowing : 

" I am almost twenty-two, and have, as yet, at- 
tained but the threshold of knowledge. I have 
formed but few settled opinions, and have examined 

236 



A Batch of Biographies 

but few subjects. . . . The end of the year has 
come around and finds me almost in the very spot 
I was at its commencement. I have learned little 
and have forgotten much, and, really, to conclude 
the future from the past, I almost despair of making 
any figure in the world." 

Having read law for a time Chase was admitted 
to the bar and decided to go West and grow up with 
the country. He chose Cincinnati as his adopted 
home, where he had spent a year as a student while 
a boy. He was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1830, 
and opened a law ofiice in the Queen City. Then, 
like many a young lawyer, he sat down to wait for 
clients. After a long wait one came and gave him 
fifty cents for writing a deed. But the next one that 
came borrowed the fifty cents and Chase never saw 
it again. 

Mr. Chase, however, became one of the leading 
lawyers of the city within four or ^ve years after 
he first opened his ofiBce. He made a fortunate hit 
by publishing in three volumes " The Laws of Ohio." 
Of course such a work could not have brought him 
much money; but it did something better, it made 
its author known to every judge and every prominent 
lawyer in the State and to a great many jurists out- 
side the State. 

In 1834 Mr. Chase married a lovely girl named 
Catherine Jane Garniss, but a year and a half later 
she died, leaving him a little daughter. He was 
greatly devoted to the child, but she died at the age 
of four and the fond father was left disconsolate. 

237 



A Guide to American History 

Chase was a man of such a strong, positive nature 
that he could not keep from taking sides on the slav- 
ery question. As we noticed in the case of Harriet 
Beecher Stowe, Cincinnati was on the border of slave 
land and scarcely any of its people could hold a neu- 
tral ground on this great subject. Lane Seminary, 
of which Dr. Beecher was president, became a hotbed 
of slavery discussion, and in 1834 the trustees de- 
cided that the students should not discuss the ques- 
tion. But many of them refused to obey and left 
the seminary. 

Many of the students were downright abolition- 
ists and they made frequent excursions into Ken- 
tucky to preach their doctrines and make converts. 
And frequently they succeeded. One of the men 
converted was a Mr. John Van Zandt, a Kentucky 
farmer, who set his slaves free, crossed the river into 
Ohio, and bought a farm. Later he harbored fugi- 
tive slaves in his house and for this he was arrested 
and thrown into prison. Where was there a lawyer 
with courage enough to defend Van Zandt in an un- 
popular cause ? One was found in Salmon P. Chase. 

Mr. Chase had been leaning toward the anti-slav- 
ery cause for some years. He had made enemies 
and lost business ; but he knew no fear. He now 
took up the Van Zandt case, and after making his 
plea, as he was leaving the court room one of the 
judges remarked: 

" There goes a young man who has ruined him- 
self to-day,'' and perhaps everyone present believed 
the same thing. 

238 



A Batch of Biographies 

He lost the case and carried it to the Supreme 
Court, where he lost again. Perhaps the justice of 
the higher court had the same opinion as the Cincin- 
nati judge had expressed. 'No one dreamed that Mr. 
Chase himself would fill the place of Chief Justice of 
the United States, but so it turned out. 

Another instance in which Chase became interested 
was the case of a young slave woman named Matilda, 
whose owner was a Missouri planter. She was so 
light in color that she could easily pass for a white 
woman. One day as she and her master were going 
down the Ohio by boat the vessel stopped at Cincin- 
nati, and Matilda slipped away and was soon lost in 
the streets of the city. She found employment in 
the house of Mr. Birney, whose printing press had 
been destroyed by the mob. Here she remained for 
nearly a year, when she was found by an agent of 
her owner. Mr. Chase was engaged to defend her 
in the trial, but he lost the case and Matilda was 
taken back into slavery. Soon after this she was 
" sold down the river," that is, to the far South, and 
she was probably never again heard of by those who 
had known her before. 

Mr. Birney was then arrested for harboring a fugi- 
tive, which was against the law, and Mr. Chase was 
engaged to defend him. He lost in the lower court, 
but won in the supreme court of Ohio. 

In many such cases Chase became interested. He 
was the most prominent anti-slavery worker in Ohio. 
He received hundreds of letters from all parts of the 
country asking his advice — from runaway slaves or 

239 



A Guide to American History 

from masters who wished to set their slaves free. 
He became known as the " attorney-general of the 
fugitive slaves." But his side was the unpopular 
one and he lost many of his best friends and a great 
deal of practice that he might have had. 

Our chapter is becoming too long and we must close 
by giving simply an outline of Chase's later life. In 
1849 he was elected to the United States Senate and 
then really began his great career. He was one of 
the leaders of that body from the start. In 1856 he 
became Governor of Ohio, and after four years in this 
position he reentered the Senate. This was the time 
of the beginning of the Civil War and President 
Lincoln asked Chase to enter his Cabinet as secretary 
of the treasury. He was one of the great financiers 
of our history. 

In 1864 Chase left the Cabinet and soon after- 
wards Lincoln appointed him Chief Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the United States, a position 
which he held till his death in 1873. 



240 



CHAPTEK XVI 

THE DECADE BEFORE THE WAR 

TT is not our purpose in this book to enter deeply 
-*■ into questions of politics and of government. 
But some notice of the events just preceding the great 
Civil War will be necessary to an understanding of 
the war itself. 

The events of this period were of a stirring nature, 
but they are not well knowru to the average American 
citizen, perhaps for the reason that the war itself 
which followed overshadowed and eclipsed the years 
that had preceded. A lofty hill may look small if 
it stands near a mountain. 

The one great subject of this period was slavery. 
It absorbed the people's attention everywhere. It 
was heard from the pulpit and the rostrum and in the 
legislative halls. The newspapers and magazines 
were full of the subject and books were written on it. 

We were the last of the great nations to do away 
with slavery. A hundred years before this time al- 
most all the countries of Europe had slaves, but all 
had set them free ; so had Mexico and the countries 
of South America. Slavery still existed in the south- 
em United States, and on account of it there was an 
unceasing quarrel between that section and the Xorth. 

241 



A Guide to American History 

The South wished to extend slave territory, but 
the l^orth believed slavery to be wrong and opposed 
its extension. So came the quarrel, and later the 
war — the greatest civil war in history. 



Lopez and Walker 

In August, 1851, a vessel named the Pampero, 
launched out from the harbor of 'New Orleans into 
the Gulf of Mexico on a strange mission. It was 
a time of peace throughout the Western Hemisphere, 
but the Pampero carried 500 armed men. Their 
commander was a man past fifty, with a strange 
glare in his eye, and with a notable record behind 
him. 

It was ISTarisco Lopez. He was a native of Vene- 
zuela and had fought in the war between that coun- 
try and Spain, ^ext we find him in Spain fighting 
in the Carlist War. That being over, he spent a 
few years in Cuba; but a quiet life did not suit the 
adventurous Lopez. He began to plot for a revolu- 
tion in Cuba, an uprising against Spain. The Cu- 
bans did not readily respond and Lopez came to the 
Southern States and planned an expedition to Cuba. 

Many of the slaveholders were eager for more 
slave States, and what a fine, big one Cuba would 
make. Lopez made them believe that the Cubans 
would rise against Spain, if they had a bold leader, 
and would gladly join the United States. From the 
slaveholders he collected money for this expedition. 

It is true that Lopez had tried this same thing 

242 



The Decade Before the War 

the year before, on a smaller scale, and had not been 
successful ; but he felt sure of success now. Secretly 
they prepared so that the Government officials would 
not detect them, and in August, 1851, they swung 
out into the gulf and spread their sails for Cuba, 

In a day or two they landed on the island; but 
the natives did not rise up to welcome them. They 
moved toward the interior, and were soon attacked 
by a Spanish army. The Cuban people joined with 
the Spaniards and Lopez and nearly all his army 
were captured. Most of them, including Colonel 
Crittenden, son of a famous United States senator, 
were put to death. Lopez himself, on the first day 
of September, was garroted (choked to death with the 
garrote, an iron collar) in the public square in Hav- 
ana in the presence of thousands of people. 

William Walker was another filibuster, more vi- 
sionary, perhaps, than Lopez, and he engaged in the 
same kind of business with the same result. He 
was an American adventurer, bom in Tennessee. 
He was a kind of Jack of all trades, a restless spirit 
who had one great passion — the extension of slave 
territory. 

With a small band of kindred spirits he sailed 
from California in 1855 for Nicaragua. In a short 
time he gained control of the country, having put its 
president to death. He then proclaimed laws es- 
tablishing slavery, though slavery had been abolished 
in that country for thirty-two years. 

Walker held the government for two years, but 
gradually lost power. At length he was captured 

243 



A Guide to American History 

by an American war vessel and carried to 'New York 
for trial; but be was acquitted and was soon on bis 
way back to Central America. Tbis time be was 
overpowered on tbe coast of Honduras and fell into 
tbe bands of tbe commander of a Britisb war vessel. 
He was tben banded over to tbe natives, wbo made 
sbort work of bim. He was sbot to deatb. His 
expedition, like tbose of Lopez, resulted in notbing, 
except tbat it stirred up tbe slavery question and 
brougbt bis own deatb. Tbus ended tbe filibuster- 
ing expeditions. 

The Passing of Two Geeat Men 

Two of tbe ablest statesmen in American bistory 
were Henry Clay and Daniel Webster. Tbeir 
names are often linked togetber. Botb entered pub- 
lic life wben young men and eacb served bis country 
till tbe coming of old age. Botb were leaders of 
tbe same great party — tbe Wbig party. Tbey were 
usually, but not always, friendly to eacb otber. Clay 
was a great party leader; Webster was a great law- 
yer and orator. Botb passed away tbe same year — 
1852. 

Henry Clay was a party leader of great popularity 
and tbe founder of tbe Wbig party. He was a can- 
didate for President tbree times, but eacb time missed 
tbe great prize. He was secretary of state in Mon- 
roe's Cabinet and served in tbe House and Senate 
for many years. 

Seldom indeed in our bistory bas a public man 

244 



The Decade Before the War 

had such a faithful, lifelong following as Henry 
Clay, and the fact that he never became President 
does not detract from his fame. 

When the Whig convention met in Baltimore in 
the early summer of 1852 the great founder of the 
party lay dying in Washington. Scarcely a week 
after the convention had adjourned the news was 
flashed over the land that Henry Clay had passed to 
the great beyond. He had reached the age of sev- 
enty-five and his strength had been failing for some 
years, yet the news of his death came as a shock to 
his hosts of friends, who were loath to give up their 
beloved leader. 

Sad and slow was the funeral procession which 
moved to the mournful music through the streets 
of Washington, and thousands were the mourners. 
After being taken through the various cities of the 
East, where great multitudes viewed the remains, the 
body was carried across the Alleghanies and laid to 
rest in Kentucky, which had been Clay's adopted 
State since his early manhood. 

Daniel Webster was a few years younger than 
Clay. The two men were very unlike. Webster 
was not a party leader, nor did he win a large follow- 
ing. He was a splendid orator and a profound law- 
yer and the people admired and praised him, but 
they did not love him as they loved Clay. 

Webster, too, aspired to the presidency of the 
United States, but never received the nomination of 
his party. He was deeply disappointed when the 
Whig convention of 1852 nominated Scott instead of 

245 



A Guide to American History 

himself. His feelings were deeply wounded as lie 
thought his party had not treated him as he deserved : 
but in July, some time after the convention, he vis- 
ited Boston and the great reception given him by 
the people soothed his feelings. 

He lived at Marshfield, a little town on the coast 
south of Boston, and here he spent most of the sum- 
mer of 1852 as his health was failing steadily. In 
May he had been thrown from his carriage and was 
many weeks recovering from the shock; besides, a 
fatal disease was preying on his life. In September 
he failed rapidly, and he and his friends knew that 
recovery was impossible. 

Day after day he lay on his bed by the open 
window listening to the deep roar of the sea and 
watching the ceaseless rolling of the crested waves. 
His nights were sleepless and restless. During his 
last days he talked freely with his friends about his 
approaching departure. He declared that he had a 
profound belief in the truth of the Christian relig- 
ion. 

One beautiful Indian summer day in October, as 
the setting sun's golden rays were dancing upon the 
water, the dying statesman gazed for the last time 
through the open window. Long he looked and then 
turning to his friend he said " I shall die to-night," 
and ere the coming of the morning his life went out 
with the ebbing of the tide. 

Webster had requested that there be no public 
demonstrations at his funeral, and his request was 
observed. By the farmers of the neighborhood his 

246 



The Decade Before the War 

body was carried to the little cemetery near his 
home, and there by the sounding sea, which he had 
always loved so well, it was laid to its final rest. 



The Underground Railroad 

Most of this chapter must be devoted to features 
of the slavery question, for it was this that kept the 
people in a turmoil during the whole period we are 
treating. 

In 1850 the Fugitive Slave law was passed, by 
which a runaway slave could be caught in any of the 
free States and taken back to his master. The worst 
feature of this law was that any bystander was 
obliged to help catch a fleeing negro if called on to 
do so. A great many people felt that they ought to 
aid the slave in escaping, but the law commanded 
them to aid the pursuer. And thousands decided to 
obey conscience and not the law of their country. 
Hence came the Underground Railroad. 

It was not a real railroad, under or above ground. 
It was merely a system of helping slaves who were 
trying to escape from bondage. The slave hunters 
so often lost all trace of the fugitives that they de- 
clared there must be an underground railroad some- 
where. 

When a slave ran away to try to gain his free- 
dom, he usually aimed to get to Canada, because 
there the laws of England made him free. A great 
many succeeded, but very few would have done so 
had they not been helped along the way by " con- 

247 



A Guide to American History 

diictors," or " station agents " of the Underground 
Railroad. These were farmers or others who fed 
and sheltered the fleeing blacks in their homes or 
sometimes in a haymow or coal mine. Certain towns 
and farmhouses were called stations. The negroes 
often traveled at night and remained hidden away at 
one of the stations during the day. In this way 
hundreds of them gained their freedom. But some- 
times they were caught and then their lot was made 
harder than before. 

But it must be remembered that a great many of 
the slaves did not wish to be free. Many were kind- 
ly treated by their masters and preferred to stay 
with them. Others were too ignorant to know what 
freedom was. 

Nevertheless many did want to be free, and most 
people in the North believed that if a man were held 
in bondage for no crime, he ought to have his free- 
dom if he wished it — and they were willing to aid 
him if they could. 

There were many lines of the so-called Under- 
ground Railroad through the free States. A few 
examples of slave catching, or attempted slave catch- 
ing, will be interesting. 

There was a slave woman, almost white, who had 
escaped and made her home in Philadelphia. Her 
name was Harriet Tubman. She would make an 
excursion to Virginia, or Maryland, gather a com- 
pany of blacks and pilot them to Philadelphia. Some- 
times she would accompany them to Canada. This 
woman is said to have made seventeen trips to the 

248 



The Decade Before the War 

slave States and rescued scores of her race. She 
would carry babies in baskets and keep them quiet 
with drugs. Harriet Tubman came to be called the 
^' Moses of her people." During the Civil War she 
was employed in the Northern armies as a scout and 

spy. 

A good example to illustrate the working of the 
Underground Road was the case of Tom and Jenny, 
in northeastern Ohio. Tom and Jenny were a col- 
ored man and his wife who had escaped from slavery. 
They traveled on foot toward Canada, leisurely, as 
they thought all danger of recapture was past and be- 
cause they had two children so young that they had to 
be carried most of the way. After spending a night 
at the little town of Bloomfield they started on the 
following morning. 

'Next day two horsemen stopped at the tavern of 
the same town and while at supper they asked the 
waitress if any colored folks had passed that way. 
" Yes," was her answer, " a man and his wife and 
two children." The men seemed greatly pleased, 
and after inquiring the direction in which the fugi- 
tives had gone, they decided to remain at the tavern 
overnight, as they were sure of an easy catch next 
day. The girl now saw that the men were slave 
hunters and became alarmed for the colored people 
whom she had innocently betrayed. She hurried to 
Mr. Harris, the tavern keeper, and told the whole 
story. 

Harris was not long deciding what to do. He se- 
cretly secured two strong horses and a covered wagon. 

249 



A Guide to American History 

Then he found two strong men, John Weed and Jim 
Green, and told them what he wanted. " Hide them 
in the wagon and bring them back to Bloomfield, and 
we will decide what to do then,'' said Harris. The 
two slave hunters went to bed while John Weed and 
Jim Green started north at a good round pace and 
drove all night. 

Next morning the slave hunters had to have their 
horses shod, and Mr. Barnes, the blacksmith, had 
more bad luck while shoeing those horses than he had 
ever had before. He broke some nails and drove 
others amiss. One shoe was too small and had to 
be taken off ; he mislaid this and that, and in fact he 
spent most of the forenoon shoeing the horses. Prob- 
ably he had received a wink from Harris. 

That night the two slave hunters stopped at a little 
town, at the same tavern with Jim Green and John 
Weed. In a bam near by were the blacks and next 
morning they saw through the cracks their pursuers 
saddle their horses and canter away to the North. 
But their prey had found the Underground Railroad 
and disappeared. Green and Weed brought their 
load back to Bloomfield. The men of the town then 
came together with saws and axes and went to the 
middle of a deep forest owned by Mr. Harris. Here 
they built a cabin half a mile from any road and 
here the colored family was safely lodged. They 
were fed by the people of Bloomfield, and in this 
cabin they remained till the next spring, when they 
proceeded on their way to Canada. 

One more example will show the great hardships 

250 



The Decade Before the War 

endured sometimes by a slave to obtain his freedom. 
The case is that of a young negro named Henry 
Brown, of Richmond, Va. He devised a novel plan 
to get to a free State and it came near proving fatal 
to him. He stowed himself in a wooden box, which 
was then sent by express to Philadelphia. His posi- 
tion was very much cramped, but he believed that 
he could endure it till he reached his destination. 
With a few biscuits and a bladder of water, he had 
a friend nail up the box securely and start it on 
its way. 

A telegram was then sent to the underground 
agents at Philadelphia, ^^ Your case of goods is 
shipped and will arrive to-morrow morning." The 
box was marked " This side up with care." 

But the expressmen were not always careful to ob- 
serve this, and part of the time Brown had to rest 
on his head. 

The journey required twenty-six hours. Arriv- 
ing in Philadelphia, the box was soon taken to a 
private room by those who had watched for it. They 
tapped on the box and heard a faint voice from 
within, " All right, sir." 

Quickly the box was opened with saw and ham- 
mer and Henry Brown was taken out, stiff and half 
dead. But having revived in a short time, he said 
that he had decided, if he came through alive, the 
first thing he would do would be to sing the fortieth 
Psalm. All about him grew solemnly silent and he 
sang, beginning with the words, " I waited patiently 
for the Lord ; and he inclined unto me, and heard my 

251 



A Guide to American History 

cry." Henry Brown was henceforth known to his 
friends as Henry Box Brown. 



Deed Scott and Johit Beown 

In the later fifties these two names — Dred Scott 
and John Brown — were on every tongue and were 
familiar to every section of the United States — all 
on account of the slavery agitation. 

Dred Scott w^as a slave, the property of Dr. Emer- 
son of Missouri, an army surgeon. The doctor took 
Dred with him to Illinois and afterwards to the ter- 
ritory that became Minnesota, as he happened to be 
stationed at these places by order of the Government. 
Dred had, with his master's consent, married a wom- 
an of his own race, who was also a slave of Dr. Emer- 
son. The Scotts had two children. 

After the doctor had returned to Missouri, Dred 
brought suit in the courts for his freedom and that 
of his family, on the ground that he had been held 
in bondage on free soil, contrary to law. After go- 
ing through the lower courts in Missouri, the case 
was carried to the Supreme Court of the United 
States — and hence we have the famous " Dred Scott 
Decision." 

Chief Justice Taney pronounced the decision 
(though his colleagues did not all agree with him) 
that Dred was still a slave and that a negro had no 
right to sue in the courts. 

This decision caused great agitation all over the 
North. Many believed that if the slaveholders were 

252 



The Decade Before the War 

thus permitted to retain their human property on 
free soil, it would not be long until all the free 
States would become slave States. They were doubt- 
less needlessly alarmed. 

Dred Scott was given his freedom after the court 
had decided against him ; but the excitement over the 
decision was not allayed and in the end it did the 
cause of slavery harm, as it awakened more and more 
opposition to it in the !N^orth. 

!Now a few words about John Brown. When a 
boy of thirteen John Brown accompanied his father 
while hauling supplies for the army in Ohio and 
Kentucky, in the War of 1812. 

For some days Mr. Brown and the boy stayed at 
the home of a rich Kentucky planter, who had a 
slave, a bright colored boy about John's age. While 
John was treated with great kindness the slave boy 
was scolded and cuffed without cause. This differ- 
ence in their treatment made a deep impression on 
John Brown. Why should this boy, who happened 
to be black and to be bom in slavery, be so treated ? 
And why such a hopeless life of bondage before him ? 
At this time a mortal life-long hatred of slavery stuck 
deep into the soul of John Brown. 

As he grew to manhood he vowed over and again 
that he would give his life to fighting this institution 
which he despised. As the years passed he had a 
family of his own, and, in imitation of the father of 
Hannibal, the ancient Carthagenian general, he had 
his sons take an oath that they, too, would spend 
their lives fighting slavery. 

253 



A Guide to American History 

When his sons were grown and he was past middle 
age serious trouble between the free State and slavery 
people broke out in Kansas and Brown went thither 
to battle for freedom. But it was a little later, in 
1859, that Brown did the one thing that made him 
famous. 

With a company of about twenty, several of whom 
were his sons, he swooped down one night on Har- 
per's Ferry, in Virginia, and captured the Govern- 
ment arsenal, after overpowering the guards. Many 
shots were fired and several were killed on each side, 
two being Brown's sons. When the news of the at- 
tack was learned at Washington, Government troops 
were sent and Brown, with his followers who re- 
mained alive, was overpowered and placed under 
arrest. 

Brown's intention was to seize the arms and am- 
munition of the arsenal, escape to the mountains, 
and to call upon the slaves to follow him and secure 
their freedom by force. A practical man of well- 
balanced judgment would have known that such an 
attempt could not succeed. 

Brown was tried for murder in the courts of Vir- 
ginia, was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged. 
He spent the time till his execution in the greatest 
serenity of mind, rejoicing that he was permitted 
to die in a good cause. When on his way to the 
scaffold he had two or three silver quarters in his 
pocket and these he handed to negroes, and it is said 
that he stopped to kiss a negro baby in its mother's 
arms. 

254 




The Last Moments of John Brown. 



The Decade Before the War 

John Brown has been denounced as a villain and 
praised as a hero. He was neither. He was a mis- 
guided fanatic, and probably the truth is that on this 
one subject of slavery he was insane. 

Closing this chapter with a more pleasing subject, 
we shall proceed to the stirring times of the Civil 
War. 

The First Atlai^tic Cable 

One day, in the year 1854, a wealthy retired mer- 
chant, while sitting in his office in 'New York in 
deep study, was thrilled by a thought which he after- 
wards compared to an electric shock. 

The man was Cyrus W. Field and the thought 
that came to him was that a cable telegraph line un- 
der the Atlantic Ocean might be constructed. Mr. 
Field afterwards found that he was not the first to 
conceive the idea of a submarine cable, but he was 
the first to put it into practice. He was not a 
dreamer who thinks and never acts. He set about 
with great diligence to form a company and raise 
money to try the experiment. 

Mr. Field was a public-spirited citizen, always 
ready to do anything in his power for the public 
good. He reflected what an advantage to civiliza- 
tion it would be if Morse's great invention could be 
used between countries on opposite sides of the ocean. 
He soon had a company formed and a large sum of 
money raised. He then went to England and laid 
his project before the Queen, the Government, and 
the wealthy men of London. His success was greater 

255 



A Guide to American History 

than he had expected. The British Government of- 
fered to furnish money and vessels for laying the 
cable, and the United States also passed an act to 
aid Mr. Field. 

It was decided that the cable be laid from St. 
Johns, Newfoundland, to the coast of Ireland, where 
the Atlantic is only about 1700 miles wide. The 
ends were to be connected by land telegraph with 
ISTew York and London. 

A submarine cable is made by inclosing several 
strands of fine copper wire in a covering of gutta 
percha. Around this is a layer of tarred jute and 
then the whole is inclosed in a shield of galvanized 
iron wires. The water never penetrates to the inner 
copper wires, which carry the electric current. 

Mr. Field ordered the cable made. When finished 
it was placed in two ships, the Niagara, an American 
vessel, and the Agamemnon, a British vessel. The 
Niagara was to use up its cable first and then, in 
mid-ocean, the part carried by the Agamemnon was 
to be spliced to it. On the Niagara were Mr. Field 
and Professor Morse, the inventor of the telegraph. 

Slowly the vessels moved out from the coast of 
Ireland, the cable unrolling from a large cylinder 
and dropping to the bottom of the sea. Great was 
the anxiety of Mr. Field, who had scarcely slept 
for several days, in anticipation of success to his proj- 
ect. The feeling of the whole company, said the eye 
witness, was one of solemnity and awe. Everyone 
seemed to feel that a great event in the world's his- 
tory was about to take place. 

256 



The Decade Before the War 

One hundred miles and everything was going 
swimmingly. Another hundred and still another 
they sailed from Ireland, without incident. But 
before they had gone another fifty miles the cable 
parted and the end fell to the bottom of the ocean. 
This was in August, 1857. 

The disappointment was keen to all who had been 
interested in the great project. Many believed that 
this failure was final and that a trans- Atlantic cable 
was but a dream. Xot so with Mr. Field. He knew 
no such word as fail. The summer was well-nigh 
spent and no further attempt could be made that 
season. But scarcely had Mr. Field landed when 
he set to work to repair the damage, with a view of 
trying again the next year. 

Again he tried and failed, and still again; but 
Mr. Field would not give up. He was convinced 
that success was certain if they only had pluck 
enough to stick to it. 

It was decided that this time the two ships pay 
out the cable at the same time, while sailing in op- 
posite directions. Accordingly, they began in the 
middle of the ocean, spliced their cable, and one 
sailed east and the other west. 

At last, the effort was crowned with success. The 
Niagara reached the coast of IsTewfoundland and the 
Agamemnon the coast of Ireland on the same day — 
the 4th of August, 1858 — and almost the same hour. 
The great work was done and it seemed successful 
in every respect. President Buchanan and Queen 
Victoria exchanged messages of congratulation. Cy- 

257 



A Guide to American History 

rus W. Field was hailed in all circles as the great 
hero of the age. 

For nearly four weeks the cable worked well. 
Some Y30 messages, about 10,000 words, were flashed 
under the sea between the two hemispheres. Then 
suddenly the cable ceased to work, and not another 
message was sent for eight years. 

Here indeed was a supreme test of the metal of 
Mr. Field. But he was equal to it. More than a 
million dollars had been literally sunk in the depths 
of the Atlantic's waves. Could Mr. Field again in- 
terest the public and raise the necessary funds. He 
felt surer of success than at first, because he had 
learned by his failures. But soon came the Civil 
War and there was little opportunity to interest the 
American public. Mr. Field thereupon went to Lon- 
don and again he found the British Government 
eager to aid him. 

The next attempt was made in the summer of 1865. 
One vessel only was employed — the Great Eastern, 
the largest vessel afloat at that time. For 1200 miles 
it paid out the cable from the Irish coast, when again 
it snapped and sank to the bottom. Field now be- 
came desperately determined, and the next year the 
Great Eastern was again plowing through the At- 
lantic's billows rolling off a new cable at the rate of 
118 miles a day. 

Success at last! For some days before the Great 
Eastern was due at Heart's Content, JSTewfoundland, 
the shore was lined with hundreds of people, watch- 
ing every speck that loomed above the watery horizon. 

258 



The Decade Before the War 

At length the huge vessel hove in sight — on July 27, 
1866 — and before night of that day, Cyrus W. Field 
sent to l^ew York and Washington the following 
message : " We arrived here at nine o'clock this morn- 
ing. All well. Thank God, the cable is laid, and 
is in perfect working order." 

jSTot long after this the Great Eastern returned 
to mid-ocean, where the cable of the year before 
had been broken, and with grappling hooks succeeded 
in finding the end of it. This was spliced and com- 
pleted to l^ewfoundland. Thus before the end of 
the year 1866 two Atlantic cables were in working 
order and both have been in operation from that day 
to the present. 

The completion of this great work marks an epoch 
in history. This vast improvement in the transmis- 
sion of news would have come some time, to be sure, 
but the world might have been many years longer 
without it, but for the untiring efforts, the indomit- 
able determination of one of America's most distin- 
guished citizens, Cyrus W. Field. 



259 



CHAPTEK XVII 

THE GREAT WAR 

A CIVIL war is one between the different parts 
of, or classes of people in, the same country. 
It is like a family quarrel, and is the most deplor- 
able of all wars, for neighbor often fights against 
neighbor, brother against brother, father against son. 
In France there were nine civil wars in a period 
of thirty-six years, beginning in 1562. 

The greatest of all civil wars was that in the 
United States, between the [N'orth and the South, 
beginning in 1861. For many years the North and 
South had been growing apart, chiefly, almost solely, 
on account of slavery. Fifteen of the Southern 
States had slaves ; all the iNTorthern States were free. 
The South wished to extend slavery into the terri- 
tories, and thus secure more slave States. The peo- 
ple of the North opposed this, because they believed 
slavery to be an evil to society as a whole and a 
wrong to the individual slave. Thus the two great 
sections of the country grew further and further 
apart; the bonds of sympathy between them were 
severed one by one until they seemed more like ene- 
mies than friends. 

Then came the election of Lincoln to the presi- 

260 




bJO 

-1-3 
-(-3 

o 



-2 



II 



(jf 



The Great War 

dencj in 1860, followed by the secession from the 
Union of several States in the South. For years 
secession had been threatened, and now for the first 
time it was carried out in deep earnest. The cause 
or pretext for this move was that the newly elected 
President and his party were unfriendly to slavery 
and opposed to its extension into the Territories. 

When Lincoln was inaugurated, March 4, 1861, 
seven States had left the Union and had set up a 
government of their own, which they called " The 
Confederate States of America." 

In the North, feeling was very much divided. 
Some thought the South was only trying to play a 
game of bluff, and would soon come back into the 
Union of its own accord. A great many of the 
people thought it would be better to have the Union 
permanently divided than to engage in civil war. 
Among these was Horace Greeley, the great New 
York editor, who said, " Let the Southern sisters 
depart in peace." But a majority of the Northern 
people were unwilling to see the Union broken up, 
even if it had to be preserved by war. 

Such was the condition of affairs when Abraham 
Lincoln stood on the eastern steps of the Capitol 
before a vast crowd of people, to deliver his inaugu- 
ral address. It was not known what position he 
would take on the great question before the country. 
With this one man rested the secret and on him 
lay the duty of deciding whether there would be 
war or disunion. Seldom in history had such re- 
sponsibility rested on one man. 

261 



A Guide to American History 

Lincoln's address was not defiant, but it was posi- 
tive, and no one could mistake its meaning. He told 
the people of the South that the ills they were flying 
from had no real existence, as he had no thought of 
disturbing their institution of slavery. He told them 
that they had no oath registered in heaven to destroy 
the Union, while he should have a most solemn one 
to protect it. This meant war if the South would 
not give up its purpose of destroying the Union. 

Soon came the firing on Fort Sumter, and the 
great war was begun. It continued just four years, 
and on the fourth anniversary of the fall of Fort 
Sumter, April 14, 1865, the day on which the be- 
loved President was shot, there was a celebration at 
the historic fort, and Major Anderson raised over 
the ruined walls the same flag that he had been 
forced to haul down four years before. 

The War in a !N'utshell 

The military operations of the Civil War may 
be divided for convenience into three periods. It 
is needless for the ordinary reader to study the de- 
tails of battles and of the movements of armies, but 
a knowledge of the general campaigns and their pur- 
poses is useful, and is not difiScult to acquire and 
to remember. 

One who reads the history of the war without 
system or knowledge of the object of the various 
campaigns will soon find his knowledge hopelessly 
mixed in his mind. On the other hand, if one has 

262 



The Great War 

a fixed outline or system in mind, with its mean- 
ing, all his subsequent reading on the subject will 
contribute to his intelligent knowledge of it. His 
mind will gather up additional items and stow them 
in their proper places. Without pretending to give 
here a history of the war, we shall attempt to fur- 
nish the outline. 

First Period. — This may be said to extend from 
the firing on Fort Sumter in April to the close of 
the year 1861. 

There were simultaneous movements in two States 
a thousand miles apart — Virginia and Missouri. In 
each there was a serious battle in midsummer — Bull 
Run and Wilson's Creek — and a minor engagement 
in the autumn at Ball's Bluff. All resulted in Con- 
federate victories. 

A side movement of the period consisted of sev- 
eral successful naval expeditions down the Atlantic 
coast, the only Union victories of the year except 
those of McClellan in western Virginia. 

This period is characterized by unreadiness on 
both sides and an absence of definite plans, by Union 
defeats, by great public excitement, and by bugle 
calls for men and the marshaling of great armies. 

Second Period. — The second period extends from 
the beginning of 1862 to July 4, 1863. This year 
and a half was characterized by great battles, by 
war on a gigantic scale, by a gradual rise of the 
fortunes of the l^Torth, ending with the highly im- 
portant simultaneous Union victories at Vicksburg 
and Gettysburg. 

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A Guide to American History 

There were two seats of war — Virginia and the 
Mississippi Valley — and there was a twofold object 
of the North — to capture Richmond and to open 
the Mississippi. But the armies east and west did 
not work in concert for want of a competent com- 
mander in chief. 

The Army of the Potomac, under its successive 
coromanders — McClellan, Pope, Burnside, Hooker, 
and Meade — failed wholly to reach its goal, met with 
many disasters, but won notable victories at Antie- 
tam and Gettysburg. 

The Army of the West was more steadily success- 
ful. Beginning with a great victory at Fort Donel- 
son, February, 1862, it opened the Mississippi to 
Vicksburg by one of the greatest flank movements 
in the history of warfare, covering a year and -^ve 
months, and, being supported from below by Farra- 
gut, it gained control of the whole course of the 
river. 

The side movements of this period were numerous 
and some of them of great magnitude, such as that 
of Buell and Bragg in Kentucky, the Pea Bidge 
campaign in Arkansas, Sherman's expedition up the 
Bed Biver, Morgan's raid in Indiana and Ohio, and 
the like. 

Third Period. — This extends from the 4th of 
July, 1863, to the end of the war. It is character- 
ized by the fact that the ^Northern armies east and 
west were under the control of one competent com- 
mander in chief, resulting in the great final double 
movement which ended the war. 

264 



The Great War 

Preliminary to this movement came the extensive 
operations around Chattanooga, preceded by the tre- 
mendous battle of Chickamauga. After this General 
Grant became commander in chief of all the armies 
east and west. He then planned the great double 
movement. Himself taking command of the Army 
of the East, Grant chose the strongest of his corps 
commanders, W. T. Sherman, to command in the 
West. 

Grant's immediate goal was to capture Lee's army 
and Richmond; Sherman's was to cut the Confed- 
eracy into two parts by a grand sweep to the coast, 
thence to move northward through the Carolinas, and 
eventually to join Grant in Virginia. 

It was believed that if either of these movements 
were successful the Confederacy must collapse and 
the war come to an end. Both were successful. 
Sherman had traversed about three fourths of his 
proposed route when Lee surrendered to Grant and 
Richmond fell. Johnston then surrendered to Sher- 
man and the war was over. 

Lincoln in the Wae 

The greatest figure in the war was President Lin- 
coln. 1^0 other can be mentioned in the same class. 
It is true that he had reached the highest office in 
the gift of the people before the war began, but it 
was his management of the war that gave him his 
abiding fame and places his name with that of Wash- 
ington as one of the two greatest figures in American 
history. 

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A Guide to American History 

The recent celebration of tlie centenary of Lin- 
coln's birth has been pronounced the most sincere 
and universal ever given any man in the history 
of the world. 

Since Lincoln's death his fame has been rising, 
and probably a hundred years hence it will be greater 
than it is now. Lincoln had many critics and ene- 
mies during the war, and indeed very few recog- 
nized the full stature of his ability. But the more 
you examine into his words and actions the greater 
he seems. Let us briefly examine what may be con- 
sidered the three greatest acts of his life. 

First among these was his management of the 
Trent affair. Captain Wilkes, in October, 1861, 
hailed the British steamer, the Trent, in West In- 
dian waters, and forcibly took from her decks Mason 
and Slidell, who had been sent to Europe in the 
interest of the Confederacy by President Jefferson 
Davis. Wilkes brought the two men to the United 
States, and the people in all parts of the country 
applauded and rejoiced at the clever capture. Con- 
gress joined in the general rejoicing, and extended 
Captain Wilkes a vote of thanks. The Cabinet was 
also jubilant, but not Lincoln. He was serious and 
noncommittal. 

Meantime, England flew into a rage. She de- 
clared that Wilkes had no right to stop one of her 
vessels at sea; she demanded the release of the two 
prisoners, and began to collect her fleet and mobilize 
her armies. 

The American people — a great majority of them 

266 



The Great War 

— said : " Let her come on ; it is cowardly to back 
down and yield to her demands." Even the secretary 
of state, Sew^ard, declared that we could defeat Eng- 
land and the South together. 

Lincoln did not see the matter in that light. He 
knew that if we declared war against England at 
that time, that country would join the South, would 
break the blockade, and would pour her armies and 
munitions of war into the South. And, amid the 
rejoicing of the people, Lincoln removed all danger 
of another war by quietly acceding to the British 
demand and releasing the prisoners. Was it coward- 
ice ? isTot at all. The act was that of a cool-headed, 
far-sighted statesman, who, in acting for millions of 
people, felt a sense of responsibility that an ordinary 
citizen cannot feel. This act of Lincoln was one of 
the most masterly strokes of statesmanship produced 
by the nineteenth century. 

Another notable achievement of the great war 
President is found in his dealing with the border 
States. There were fifteen slave States, but only 
eleven of them seceded from the Union. The re- 
maining four were called border States. They were 
Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware. Had 
these seceded, it is doubtful if the Union could have 
been saved. Lincoln knew this, and from the first 
he set about it with great skill to prevent their 
secession. 

When the Kentucky Legislature called upon him 
to regard that State as neutral and requested him 
to keep the armies off its soil, he quietly answered 

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A Guide to American History 

that he would do as they desired in as far as it 
was convenient to do so. It was a strange request 
for a member of the Union to make, and a rash 
President would have answered defiantly and prob- 
ably have driven the State into the Confederacy. 

Again, when many were clamoring for emancipa- 
tion of the slaves and denouncing Lincoln for being 
so slow, he waited and let them rail as they chose. 
He knew that the border States, all being slave 
States, might yet be driven out of the Union if he 
should be hasty in striking at slavery. He often 
met with the members of Congress from the border 
States and urged them to abolish slavery of their 
own accord, promising them that he would recom- 
mend that the Government pay the slaveholders for 
their slaves. In various other ways Lincoln kept the 
good will of the border States, and no doubt it was 
chiefly due to him that they did not secede. 

A third great act of Lincoln's life was his issuing 
the Emancipation Proclamation — at the right time. 
It is true that the idea was not original with him. 
Thousands of people thought of it at the same time, 
and many urged him to act long before he acted. 
Had he been hasty he would have offended the 
border States. He let his critics abuse him and 
waited. When he felt that the border States were 
reasonably sure to remain in the Union, when he 
saw that public opinion was ready to support him, 
he issued the great document. 

The proclamation did not free the slaves nor cause 
the South to lay down its arms, and Lincoln knew 

268 







CO 
00 



c3 






(D 



73 

o 

O 



The Great War 

that it would not. The Declaration of Independence 
did not bring independence. It simply decided what 
the people were fighting for, and it took several 
more years of warfare to really get what they wanted. 
So with the Emancipation Proclamation. It put 
the war on a new basis. Before it was issued, the 
war was fought for one purpose only — ^to save the 
Union. After this it was fought for two purposes 
— to save the Union and to free the slaves. If the 
war had closed before January 1, 1863, when the 
proclamation was to go into effect, slavery would 
have continued in the South. That result would 
have been unfortunate, for slavery would probably 
have caused trouble in the future, as it had in the 
past. It was a glorious thing for the future of the 
country that disunion and slavery were crushed to- 
gether. And the credit for bringing about these two 
momentous victories is due chiefly to the consum- 
mate skill of Abraham Lincoln. 

Siege of YicKSBUEa 

As stated before, we shall make no attempt to give 
a detailed history of the war, but here let us make 
an exception and take a look at one of the scores 
of military operations, choosing the siege of Vicks- 
burg as our subject. 

Vicksburg, some four hundred miles above 'New 
Orleans, is beautifully situated in a bend of the 
Mississippi, on a bluff about two hundred feet above 
the river. Early in the war it was fortified by the 

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A Guide to American History 

Confederates, and along the side of the hill over- 
looking the river were placed tier upon tier of bris- 
tling cannon. It was considered very important to 
the Confederates to retain control of the lower Mis- 
sissippi, that they might continue to draw men and 
supplies from Arkansas and Texas for the armies 
of the East. 

Vicksburg was indeed a veritable Gibraltar of the 
South, a sentinel watching day and night the rolling 
tide of the mighty river. As long as the South could 
hold this great fortress the States of the Southwest 
would not be cut off from their sisters of the East, 
but with the fall of Vicksburg into the hands of 
the I^orth, the lower course of the river could not 
long be held. 

At the opening of the war there was a great rising 
of the men of the l^orthwest, not only to save the 
Union but also to save the river. Should the South 
succeed in the war, this great artery of trade, their 
own beloved river, would flow for a thousand miles 
through a foreign land. The thought of this they 
could not endure, and they determined to prevent 
it by force of arms. And it was known at the !N^orth 
that to capture Vicksburg was to capture the Missis- 
sippi. Thus we see how important to both sides 
was this powerful stronghold. 

Erom the beginning one great object of the Union 
army in the West was to open the Mississippi. To 
this end General Grant collected an army at Cairo, 
111., moved up the Tennessee River, and captured 
Eort Donelson in February, 1862. In April was 

270 



The Great War 

fought the terrific two-day battle of Pittsburg Land- 
ing, or Shiloh. 

The object of the campaign seemed yet far away, 
and for more than a year after Shiloh no great vic- 
tory marked the progress of the Union arms. In 
the early spring of 1863 General Grant determined 
to bend his energies toward the capture of Vicksburg. 
Many attempts were made to get near, and at last, 
about the middle of May, the Union army coiled 
itself like an anaconda about the doomed city, and 
began one of the most famous sieges in history. 

Within the city were penned the regular inhabi- 
tants and an army of about 40,000 men. This army, 
commanded by General Pemberton, made a brave 
and desperate resistance. 

Grant decided to make a grand assault, in the 
hope of scaling the Confederate embankments and 
capturing the city by storm. This was done on the 
22d of May. For many hours the boys in blue 
fought like madmen to win the prize; they surged 
up the embankment again and again, but the boys 
in gray drove them back with fearful slaughter. 
The cannon from the surrounding hills and from 
the gunboats were answered by the booming cannon 
on the Confederate ramparts. The roll of musketry 
was so continuous that no ear could distinguish one 
shot from another. Human blood flowed like rain, 
and when evening came the Union army had lost 
3,000 men. 

It was now evident that the works could not be 
carried by storm, and the Union army settled down 

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A Guide to American History 

to a regular siege. Por six weeks the bombardment 
was kept up and tbe besieging army was ever tight- 
ening its coils. The soldiers dug tunnels, rolled 
barrels of powder into them, and exploded them in 
the hope of making a breach in the Confederate em- 
bankments, but all without effect. Midsummer ap- 
proached, and it seemed that the prisoners in the city 
would never yield. 

Let us take a glance within. How were the people 
faring? The roar of battle was unceasing day and 
night, and the screaming shells from the gunboats 
in the river rose in grand curves over the city, burst- 
ing in midair or on the streets, wrecking houses or 
tearing great holes in the earth. 

One family was about to go to the dining room 
and sit down to supper when a bombshell dropped 
through the roof to the dining room, where it burst 
and tore everything to pieces. The china and fur- 
niture were shattered to fragments and a great hole 
was torn in the floor. The maid had gone into the 
kitchen a moment before, and thus her life was saved 
and no one was hurt. That family spent the next 
night in a hole in the ground. 

The people, seeing that their lives were not safe 
in their homes, burrowed into the ground like moles 
or rabbits. The whole city was honeycombed with 
caves, and in these dismal places the people ate and 
slept while the battle raged above the ground. In 
one large subterranean den sixty-five people found a 
home. Babies were kept in store boxes, in straw, 
or wrapped in blankets. 

272 



The Great War 

But it was not all gloom in these caverns. Some- 
times the inmates danced and sang and told stories; 
then again they were terrified at the near bursting 
of a shell, which would tear the ground above them 
and perhaps shatter the clay walls of their homes. 
But it happened that in all the long siege no one 
was killed in these underground abodes. 

The people did not remain all the time in these 
caverns. Sometimes when the sound of the cannon 
seemed to lull they would go out and stroll around, 
but when the artillery began firing again they would 
run for their holes like frightened rabbits. An Epis- 
copal rector came out at a certain hour every day 
and held service in a little church, and it was al- 
ways filled with worshipers. Only once was the 
sacred edifice struck during service, and then no one 
was hurt. 

As the weeks passed the food supply began to run 
low in Vicksburg. The army and the people were 
put on short rations, then shorter and shorter, until 
there was nothing to eat except mule meat and a 
kind of bread made of cornmeal and ground beans. 
Even these w^ere becoming exhausted, and as the 
month of June came to a close it was evident to all 
that the city must surrender to the Federal army. 
It was hunger, and nothing else, that forced the brave 
defenders to give up at last. 

On the 3d of July, at two o'clock in the morning, 
a white flag was seen waving above the rampart. The 
cannon ceased to roar, and in the afternoon of that 
day Generals Grant and Pemberton met under an 

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A Guide to American History 

oak tree and arranged for the surrender of the city. 
Thirty-seven thousand men were made prisoners of 
war, and the inhabitants emerged from their dens 
and caverns and began to repair their dilapidated 
homes. 

This important victory, together with the Union 
victory at the battle of Gettysburg, which happened 
at the same time, is considered the turning point of 
the great war. From this time on it was not diffi- 
cult to see that disunion would not succeed and that 
slavery in the United States must perish. 



274 







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CD 
'XI 



CHAPTER XYIII 

ANECDOTES AND STORIES OF THE WAR 

DURIIs'G the long war there was much suffering, 
and too often there was cruelty ; but there are 
many bright spots on the dark pages of the war his- 
tory. Deeds of heroism unsurpassed, kindness to a 
fallen foe, friendship between enemies, ludicrous and 
humorous situations — these and many other things 
must be included in the history of the great Civil 
War. 

Feiendly Enemies 

When the war first broke out, and for some time 
afterwards, there was a feeling of personal hostility 
between the soldiers of the two sides. A man in blue 
uniform was treated with indignity if he fell into 
the hands of the enemy, and the same was true of the 
man in gray. But the conditions were changed long 
before the war was over. The men of each side came 
to respect their enemies. They often talked and 
joked across the line when no battle was in progress. 
Pickets of the different sides would often meet and 
spend the night together in the most friendly com- 
panionship. 

When the opposing armies were encamped on op- 

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A Guide to American History 

posite sides of the Little Rapidan Hiver, in Virginia, 
sometimes even the officers in bathing would meet 
and shake hands in the middle of the stream. The 
men often traded, Southern tobacco usually being 
bartered for ISTorthern coffee. Sometimes men scan- 
tily clad would swim across the river, merely to pay 
a friendly visit to the enemy. 

One day the Southern general, J. B. Gordon, was 
riding along his lines, when at one point he noticed 
imusual commotion, and asked: 

" What's the matter here ? What is this confu- 
sion about ? " 

" l^othing at all, general, it is all right," answered 
the men. 

As he was about to ride on he noticed the tall 
weeds on the river bank shaking. He wheeled his 
horse about and asked : 

" What's the matter with those weeds ? " 

" !N'othing, general, nothing." 

" Go break them dowa and let me see." 

The men did so and here lay a man so nearly un- 
dressed that it could not be told by his uniform 
which side he belonged to. 

" Where do you belong ? " asked the officer. 

" Over yonder," the man replied, pointing to the 
Union army across the river. 

" And what are you doing here ? Don't you know, 
sir, that there is war going on in this country ? " 

" Yes, general ; but we are not fighting now, and 
I didn't think it any harm to come over and visit 
the Johnnies a little while." 

276 



Anecdotes and Stories of the War 

The Union men always spoke of the Confederates 
as Johnnies, and the Confederates called them Yan- 
kees, or Yanks. 

General Gordon could hardly keep from laughing, 
but pretended to be very stern, and said to the Yan- 
kee : " I'm going to teach you that we are at war. 
I'm going to send you to Richmond as a prisoner." 

The man turned pale. Then the Johnnies spoke 
up : " Don't send him to prison, general ; we invited 
the Yank over, and promised to protect him." 

Gordon then turned to the trembling Yank and 
said : " !N^ow, if I permit you to go, will you promise 
me, on the honor of a soldier " 

The man did not wait till the general had fin- 
ished. He shouted, " Yes, general," and leaped into 
the water like a bullfrog, and swam to the Union 
side of the river. 

This incident is taken from General Gordon's 
"Reminiscences of the Civil War," and here is an- 
other from the same: 

When General Longstreet was besieging Knoxville, 
Tenn., a number of his troops made a brave dash 
to capture a fort, but were beaten back. As they 
fled they leaped into a deep ditch to escape the 
shower of bullets. From this they could not hope 
to get out before night without incurring the greatest 
danger. The sun was boiling down on them. They 
were out of water and almost famished with thirst. 

A young soldier offered to go for water, though 
he took his life in his hands. He succeeded in reach- 
ing the river, filled several canteens, and threw them 

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A Guide to American History 

over his shoulder. He saw a score of muskets lev- 
eled at him. How could he hope to get back alive ? 
But he was determined to risk the attempt. He 
started to run. The men in the fort were struck 
with admiration at his bravery. They fired not a 
shot. They raised a shout and cheered and cheered 
until the youth had reached his comrades in the ditch. 

Here is a story told by Major IsTelson, of Indiana : 
He was on picket duty and it was late in the night 
when a Confederate picket, not far away, called to 
him : " Hello there, Yank ! Have you got any cof- 
fee ? '' 

" Yes ; come over and share it with us," answered 
!Nelson. 

" We would like to, but there are too many of us 
— fourteen of us on this post." 

" Come, anyhow. Bring all the Johnnies with 
you. We'll divide with you." 

Until two o'clock in the morning the Blue and 
the Gray mingled together, drank coffee, and told 
stories. When the Johnnies left, they said: 

" Good night, Yanks. You've been awfully kind 
to us. Hope you'll have a good rest. We are going 
to give you battle to-morrow." 

The Little Deummee Boy 

One of the most pathetic tales of the war comes 
from Missouri. A woman from East Tennessee, 
whose husband had espoused the Union cause and 
had been killed by the enemy, came, with her little 

278 



Anecdotes and Stories of the War 

son, to Missouri in search of her sister, who lived 
in St. Louis. She intended to seek employment, 
and she thought also that her boy, who was twelve 
years of age, might be useful to the army as a drum- 
mer. At Camp Benton, in Missouri, she applied 
to the captain and told her story, asking that her 
boy be taken into the service as a drummer. The 
captain was about to declare that so small a boy 
could not be accepted when the little fellow spoke 
out: 

" Captain, don't be afraid ; I can drum. I 
drummed for Captain Hill in Tennessee." 

This was said with so much decision and confi- 
dence that the captain changed his countenance. 
" Very well, my lad, we'll give you a trial. Ser- 
geant, bring the drum and order the fifer to come 
forward." 

The fifer was an angular, bony man, over six feet 
in height. He had been a miner in the West. He 
looked down as if amused to think of this little 
fellow becoming his chum. He then straightened 
himself up, put his fife to his lips and played one 
of the most difficult selections he could find. The 
captain listened carefully, and when the piece was 
finished he turned to the mother and said : " I will 
take your son, madam. What is his name ? " 

" Edward Lee," answered the mother, " and we 
call him Eddie. And oh, captain, if he is not 
killed " 

Here she broke down and, turning to her boy, 
threw her arms around him and covered his face 

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A Guide to American History 

with kisses. Again she recovered herself and said: 
" You will bring him back, captain, won't you ? " 

" Yes, yes ; we are to be discharged in six weeks. 
Of course we will bring him back to you." 

Eddie soon became a favorite with every man in 
the company. When any of the " boys," as soldiers 
usually call one another, went out foraging and came 
in with peaches, melons, and such things, Eddie's 
share was always set aside first. 

The company was soon ordered from RoUa to 
Springfield. In the march they had to cross swamps 
and ford streams, and it was amusing to see the 
long-legged fifer wading through mud and water with 
Eddie on his back. 

It was in August, 1861. The Union army, com- 
manded by General Lyon, encountered the enemy in 
force on the banks of a little stream called Wilson's 
Creek, where a hard battle was fought on the 10th. 
The Union forces fought bravely, but were driven 
back, and their brave commander was killed. Their 
hearts sank within them when the word was passed 
along, " General Lyon is killed." 

Where was our little drummer boy ? Let us finish 
the story in the words of the one man, a member of 
Eddie's company, who alone could tell the story with 
authority. 

" That night I was detailed for guard duty, my 
turn of guard closing with the morning call. When 
I went out with the officer as relief I found that 
my post was upon a high eminence that overlooked 
the deep ravine in which our men had engaged the 

280 



Anecdotes and Stories of the War 

enemy. It was a dreary, lonesome beat. The moon 
had gone down in the early part of the night, while 
the stars twinkled dimly through a hazy atmosphere, 
lighting up imperfectly the surrounding objects. Oc- 
casionally I would place my ear near the ground and 
listen for the sound of footsteps, but all was silent 
save the far-off howling wolf that seemed to scent 
upon the evening air the banquet that we had been 
preparing for him. The hours passed slowly away, 
when at length the morning light began to streak 
along the eastern sky. Presently I heard a drum 
beat up the morning call. At first I thought it came 
from the camp of the enemy across the creek, but 
as I listened I found that it came up from the deep 
ravine. For a few minutes it was silent, and then 
as it became more light I heard it again. I listened 
— the sound of the drum was familiar to me — and 
I knew that it was our 

Drummer boy from Tennessee; 
Beating for help the reveille. 

" I was about to desert my post to go to his as- 
sistance when I discovered the officer of the guard 
approaching with two men. We all listened to the 
sound, and were satisfied that it was Eddie's drum. 
I asked permission to go to his assistance. The 
officer hesitated, saying that the orders were to march 
in twenty minutes. I promised to be back in that 
time, and he consented. I immediately started down 
the hill through the thick undergrowth, and upon 
reaching the valley I followed the sound of the drum 

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A Guide to American History 

and soon found liim, seated upon the ground, his 
back leaning against the trunk of a fallen tree, while 
his drum hung upon a bush in front of him, reach- 
ing nearly to the ground. As soon as he discovered 
me he dropped his drumsticks and exclaimed: 

" ^ Oh, corporal, I am so glad to see you ! Give 
me a drink,' reaching out his hand for my canteen, 
which was empty. 

" I immediately turned to bring him some water 
from the brook that I could hear rippling through 
the bushes near by when, thinking I was about to 
leave him, he commenced crying, saying : ' Don't 
leave me, corporal; I can't walk.' I was soon back 
with the water, when I discovered that both of his 
feet had been shot away by a cannon ball. After 
satisfying his thirst, he looked up into my face and 
said: 

" ' You don't think I will die, corporal, do you ? 
This man said I would not; he said the surgeon 
could cure my feet.' 

" I now discovered a man lying in the grass near 
him. By his dress I recognized him as belonging 
to the enemy. It appeared that he had been shot 
through the bowels, and had fallen near where Eddie 
lay. Knowing that he could not live, and seeing 
the condition of the boy, he had crawled to him, 
taken off his buckskin suspenders, and corded the 
little fellow's legs below the knee, and then laid 
down and died. While Eddie was telling me these 
particulars I heard the tramp of cavalry coming 
down the ravine, and in a moment a scout of the 

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Anecdotes and Stories of the War 

enemy was upon us and I was taken prisoner. I 
requested the officer to take Eddie up in front of 
him, and he did so, carrying him with great ten- 
derness and care. 

" When we reached the camp of the enemy the 
little fellow was dead." 



Self-sacrifice and Devotioit 

There was a young soldier from Massachusetts 
named Broad, who deserves a place among the he- 
roes for his noble self-sacrifice. 

It was in the Virginia campaign in 1864. His 
company was fighting from behind an embankment, 
when one of their number ventured too far out and 
was struck by a solid shot, his leg being nearly torn 
from his body. He rolled down the bank, in plain 
view of his comrades and of the enemy, and was 
unable to rise. The lifeblood was spurting from 
his wound, and he must soon bleed to death if not 
cared for. If only he could receive surgical atten- 
tion his life might be saved; but with the bullets 
flying around like hail it was a most dangerous task 
to attempt his rescue. 

The captain looked at his men as though saying 
with his eyes, " Who will volunteer to save our 
comrade ? " At this moment young Broad stepped 
forward and said: 

" I have neither wife nor child to suffer if I am 
killed. I will save him, if God gives me the 
strength." 

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A Guide to American History 

He then leaped over the bank, seized his wounded 
comrade, and hurried back amid the whizzing mis- 
siles. The men cheered and the surgeon soon 
stanched the gushing blood. As they gathered 
around Broad to congratulate him on his heroism 
they saw a deadly pallor on his face, and he faintly 
said: 

" I hope I have saved my friend's life, but I have 
lost my own." 

He had been shot through the body, and died 
within the hour. 

The story of Colonel Ellsworth attracted wide at- 
tention at the beginning of the war. Ephraim El- 
mer Ellsworth was a young man of much promise, 
and a favorite of President Lincoln. He was made 
colonel of a regiment, and in May, 1861, was sent 
to take possession of Alexandria, a town in Virginia 
not far from Washington. 

Descending the Potomac in boats, the troops landed 
at daybreak, and were soon in possession of the town. 
Ellsworth sent a company of men to seize the tele- 
graph station, and to make sure that the work be 
done quickly and well he accompanied them. As 
they passed the Marshall House, a hotel kept by a 
man named Jackson, they saw a Confederate flag 
waving over the roof. 

" We must have that flag," cried Ellsworth, as he 
rushed into the hotel. 

Followed by two or three of his men, he sprang 
up the stairs to the roof and seized the flag. As he 
was coming down and was but a few steps from the 

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Anecdotes and Stories of the War 

lower landing he found himself looking into the muz- 
zle of a double-barreled shotgun but six feet away. 
It was in the hands of Jackson, the hotel propri- 
etor. Ellsworth had no time for self-defense. In 
an instant the gun was discharged full at his breast. 
He pitched forward to the floor below, falling with 
a heavy thud on his face. Scarcely a second passed 
when Francis Bro^vnell, one of Ellsworth's men, shot 
Jackson directly in the face, and he fell lifeless by 
the side of the man he had slain but a moment 
before. 

There were many instances during the war of 
women fighting in the ranks without their sex being 
known. Here we give one instance of this kind : 

A young lady lived in Chicago with her brother, 
who was her only living relative. Soon after the 
war opened the brother shouldered a musket and went 
to the front, leaving his sister alone. She was phys- 
ically strong and rather above the average size of 
women. Moreover, she was extremely patriotic and 
anxious to do something for her country. She de- 
termined to make an effort to get into the ranks as 
a private soldier, and succeeded in doing so. 

Taking the name Erank Stephens, she donned the 
male uniform, entered one of the Illinois regiments, 
and soon proved herself a true soldier. In one re- 
spect she proved herself equal to any man in her 
regiment — in bravery. When a battle was raging, 
Erank Stephens was always at her place of duty. 
In everything else she remained the modest, respect- 
able woman that she had always been. Her language 

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A Guide to American History 

was so pure and her ways so gentle that she won the 
esteem of every man in her company, none of them 
suspecting for a moment that Frank was a woman. 

One day, as the army was marching through Ala- 
bama, Erank went into a house to ask for something 
to eat. Presently two Confederates crept out from 
under a bed and ordered her to surrender. She was 
taken to Atlanta, Ga., and shut up in a prison. From 
this she made a desperate effort to escape. The guard 
called on her to halt, but she ran on, paying no at- 
tention to the order. He then shot and wounded 
her severely in the leg. She was then taken to a 
hospital, where she disclosed her sex to one of the 
matrons. Receiving the kindest attention, she slowly 
recovered from her painful wound, and, being ex- 
changed, returned to her home in Chicago. Here 
she met her brother, who had also just returned 
from the war. They had lost track of each other, 
and neither knew until this meeting that the other 
was alive. 

Geiteeal Polk in a Peedicament 

Leonidas Polk was a noted Southern general, a 
graduate of West Point. He was also a clergyman, 
and for twenty years before the war was Episcopal 
Bishop of Louisiana. At the battle of Perryville, 
in Kentucky, October, 1862, he had a singular ex- 
perience. 

The battle had continued during the day, and it 
was now evening, almost dark. A new battery, un- 

286 



Anecdotes and Stories of the War 

der Polk, had just come into action when he oh- 
served a body of men, whom he supposed to be Con- 
federates, firing directly at them. " Dear me ! this 
is very sad, and it must be stopped,'^ said the gen- 
eral. Looking about for a member of his staff and 
finding none, he decided to go himself and put a 
stop to the firing. 

Riding up to the colonel, he demanded in angry 
tones why they were firing on their own friends. 

" I don't think there can be any mistake about it ; 
I am sure they are the enemy," answered the colonel. 

" Enemy ? Why, I only just left them myself. 
Cease firing, sir ! What is your name ? " 

" I am Colonel , of Indiana. And pray, sir, 

who are you ? " 

Polk now realized, to his astonishment, that he 
was among enemies. His wits did not desert him. 
He saw that the only hope of saving himself from 
death or capture was to brazen it out. He wore a 
dark blouse, which partly covered his gray uniform, 
and this, with the approaching night, proved his 
salvation. Riding close up to the colonel, he shook 
his fist at him and shouted: 

" I'll show you who I am, sir. Cease firing this 
instant ! " 

The colonel hesitated and the Southern general 
rode slowly along the line until he came to a copse. 
He then put spurs to his horse and galloped back 
in safety to his own lines. 

About a year and eight months after this incident 
General Polk was killed at Pine Mountain, near At- 

287 



A Guide to American History 

lanta, his body being torn to pieces by a cannon 
ball. 

The President's Letter to Mrs. Bixby 

For tender sympathy and simple beauty of ex- 
pression no letter of condolence in the English lan- 
guage will surpass the one sent by President Lincoln 
to Mrs. Bixby. She was a widow about sixty years 
of age, and resided in Boston. She had six sons in 
the war, -^ve of whom were killed in battle. When 
the facts were published in the newspapers and when 
it became known that Mrs. Bixby was poor, a con- 
siderable sum of money was raised and carried to 
her by General Schouler. Some time later she re- 
ceived from President Lincoln the following remark- 
able letter, which deserves to be placed among the 

classics : 

Washiis-gtoit, 21st !N'ov., 1864. 

Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files of 
the War Department a statement of the. Adjutant 
General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of 
^ve sons who have died gloriously on the field of 
battle. 

I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words 
of mine which should attempt to beguile you from 
•the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot 
refrain from tendering you the consolation that may 
be found in the thanks of the republic they died to 
save. 

I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the 
anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the 

288 



Anecdotes and Stories of the War 

cherished memory of the loved and the lost, and 
the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid 
so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. 
Yours, very sincerely and respectfully, 

A. Lincoln. 
Mrs. Bixby 



289 



CHAPTER XIX 

AFTERMATH OF THE WAR 

Like a hurricane or an earthquake, a war leaves 
desolation in its trail. The cost of the Civil War in 
human life and treasure was incalculable, but per- 
haps it was worth all it cost. It crushed the spirit 
of disunion and overthrew the blighting institution 
of slavery. And it did more — it opened the way 
for a feeling of common brotherhood between the 
North and the South such as had not existed before 
since the founding of the government. 

This feeling did not come suddenly at the close 
of the war. First came the troublous days of Re- 
construction, or the bringing back of the straying 
sisters into the family of the Union. This required 
several years and engendered much bitterness of feel- 
ing on both sides. The most conspicuous figure in 
Reconstruction times was Andrew Johnson. 

Andrew Johnson 

Several of our Presidents, beginning with Andrew 
Jackson, rose by their own genius and industry from 
the ranks of the poor and unknown. Andrew John- 
son was one of these, and in addition to his poverty 
he was illiterate, scarcely being able to read when 

290 



Aftermatli of the War 

lie reached manhood. He was of the class of " poor 
whites " in the South whose condition was little 
better than that of the negro slaves. He was born 
in Kaleigh, the capital of ISTorth Carolina, in 1808. 
When he was but five years old his father lost his 
life while trying to rescue a friend from drowning, 
and his mother was obliged to support herself and 
her boy with the labor of her hands. 

Andrew was a ragged street urchin until he reached 
the age of ten, when he was apprenticed to a tailor. 
There were other boys in the shop, and a benevolent 
man often came in to entertain the boys by reading 
to them. Andrew became greatly interested and was 
seized with an intense desire to learn to read. At 
spare moments he studied the alphabet and soon 
learned it by heart. Then he sought help in learn- 
ing how to pronounce the printed words. It was 
not long until he could read, though only with much 
difficulty. 

Johnson became a good tailor and began business 
for himself. While quite a young man he was mar- 
ried to a most estimable young lady, who had a fair 
education. Johnson's marriage became the turning 
point in his life. His wife became his teacher and 
her pupil applied himself with the utmost diligence. 
She instructed him in the evenings, and during the 
day she often read to him as he sat on his bench at 
work. They had moved to Greenville, Tenn., and 
there the young tailor soon became one of the lead- 
ing men, and was elected mayor of the town at the 
age of twenty-two. 

291 



A Guide to American History 

Johnson learned very rapidly under the direction 
of his wife, and soon had a good working education. 
When he entered politics and began to make public 
speeches he astonished his friends with his eloquence 
and his rapid flow of language. He was elected to 
the legislature of his adopted State, and served in 
it several years. In 1843, when Johnson was thirty- 
five, he was elected to Congress, and after a service 
of ten years in the House he was chosen Governor of 
Tennessee. As governor he served two terms — four 
years — and then was chosen to represent his State 
in the United States Senate, and here we find him 
at the outbreak of the war. 

In every position Johnson had filled he proved 
himself an honest, fearless, capable man. He usually 
championed the cause of the laborer, when occasion 
offered, but he won the good will of all classes. 

In 1861 there came a crisis in Andrew Johnson's 
life. He was one of the twenty-two senators from 
the eleven seceded States. All the rest resigned their 
seats; Johnson alone remained true to the Union. 
He was not unfriendly to slavery. In fact, he had 
himself become a slaveholder, and was ever ready to 
defend the institution ; but he despised secession and 
disunion. As the war progressed Johnson became 
convinced that slavery, which had caused the war, 
should be abolished, and he worked henceforth to 
that end. 

President Lincoln was greatly attracted by Mr. 
Johnson, and appointed him military governor of 
Tennessee. Johnson accepted, and reached Nash- 

292 



Aftermatli of the War 

ville in March, 1862, about a month after the fall 
of Fort Donelson. Tennessee at this time, and for 
many months thereafter, was a battle ground. John- 
son had a hard time of it. His life was threatened 
over and over again. At one time a surging mob 
was thirsting for his blood, and he kept the angry 
men at bay by the fierce, defiant glare of his eye. 

Johnson's bold course, his unswerving stand for 
the Union, had attracted the attention of the whole 
country, and especially of President Lincoln. When 
the Republican party met in national convention in 
1864, and renominated Mr. Lincoln for President, 
it was thought that for second place on the ticket 
a man from the South should be chosen, and the 
eyes of all turned to Johnson. He was nominated 
by a large majority, and the ticket was triumphantly 
elected. At the inauguration on March 4, 1865, an 
untoward event occurred which sent a shiver through 
the whole country. When Johnson took the oath of 
office as Vice-president and made his address, he 
reeled and talked in such a manner as to show that 
he was intoxicated. Many people jumped to the 
conclusion that he was a drunkard, and were filled 
with dread when they thought of the possibility of 
his becoming President. But Lincoln was not 
alarmed. He said : " Andy made a slip the other 
day, but there's nothing to fear. Andy is not a 
drunkard." 

Lincoln was right. The fact was, Johnson had 
been sick for weeks. His physicians advised him 
not to attend the inauguration at all; but as he in- 

293 



A Guide to American History 

sisted on going, they gave him a stimulant, which in 
his weakened condition proved too much. 

A few weeks after the inauguration came the most 
dreadful tragedy in American history — the assassi- 
nation of President Lincoln. He was shot on the 
night of April 14th, about ten o'clock, and died the 
next morning at twenty-two minutes past seven. At 
ten o'clock the same forenoon Andrew Johnson was 
sworn into the great oflS.ce, the third " accidental " 
President up to that time. 

A Peesident oit Trial 

In ordinary times Johnson might have made a 
good President. He was able and honest. But these 
were not ordinary times. The feeling of bitterness 
between the two sections rose again to fever heat after 
the actual fighting was over. Moreover, Johnson 
with all his honesty and ability was tactless and 
egotistical. E"ot many months after taking the oath 
as President he had a serious quarrel with Congress. 

The trouble came about over a disagreement con- 
cerning Reconstruction, and it grew more acute 
month by month. Congress passed laws over the 
President's veto, some of which seemed devised for 
the purpose of annoying him. The President, on the 
other hand, denounced Congress in the most bitter 
terms, apparently forgetting the dignity attached to 
his office. He made a trip to Chicago in 1866 for 
the purpose of attending the comer-stone laying of a 
monument to Stephen A. Douglas. While on this 

294 



Aftermath of the War 

journey lie made speeches in Cleveland, St. Louis, 
and other cities bitterly denouncing the leaders in 
Congress, declaring that some of them ought to be 
hanged. This was extravagant language indeed for a 
chief magistrate to use with reference to other high 
officials of the Government. But it did his cause far 
more harm than good. Many people who had been 
inclined to sympathize with Johnson were repelled 
and turned away by his violence and his want of 
dignity. 

Congress was furious. The President became an 
object of hatred to a large majority of its members, 
and one of the laws they passed to annoy him was the 
Tenure of Office law. By this law an official ap- 
pointed by the President could not be dismissed by 
him without the consent of the Senate. This took 
from the President a great deal of his power. But 
Johnson did not believe the law was constitutional 
and refused to be bound by it. In defiance of the 
Senate he dismissed from his Cabinet his Secretary 
of War, Mr. Edwin M. Stanton. 

This act of the President brought on a crisis. For 
more than a year Congress had been watching for an 
opportunity to strike a telling blow at Johnson, and 
on the very day on which Stanton was dismissed a 
resolution was brought in the House that " Andrew 
Johnson, President of the United States, be im- 
peached of high crimes and misdemeanor." Two 
days later it was passed by a large majority and thus 
for the first and only time in American history a 
President was impeached. 

295 



A Guide to American History 

You may often hear people say that Johnson was 
not impeached. If so, it is probably because they 
do not fully understand the meaning of the word. 
What they mean is that he was not deposed from 
office. An impeachment is a public accusation of an 
officer by a vote of the Lower House of Congress. 
It is like an indictment of an accused person by a 
grand jury, after which the accused must stand trial 
before a petit jury, or a judge. 

In case of an impeachment of the President he 
must stand trial before the Senate as the jury. 

The impeachment of President Johnson was in 
T'ebruary, 1868, and he must now undergo a trial 
before the Senate. This was by far the most famous 
trial in the history of the United States. The whole 
nation was interested and even in Europe the public 
eagerly watched every step in its progress. 

The trial was properly begun on March 30th, and 
continued for six weeks. Salmon P. Chase, chief 
justice of the Supreme Court, was the presiding 
officer, the members of the Senate constituted the 
jury, while the accusation was presented by certain 
members of the Lower House who had been chosen 
for the purpose. The President was defended by 
lawyers of national reputation, chief of whom was 
William M. Evarts of ]^ew York. There were fifty- 
four Senators and a two-thirds vote or thirty-six were 
necessary to convict the President. 

Intense was the interest in the great trial through- 
out the country, especially when the time came for 
the vote of the Senate to be taken. The Senate 

296 



Aftermath of the War 

chamber was crowded and outside surged a restless 
multitude. Telegraph operators sat at their places, 
ready to flash the news to the waiting throngs in 
every part of the Union. 

To the witness stand were summoned men of na- 
tional fame — members of the Cabinet and generals of 
the Army. There were several charges against the 
President, the most important being that he had 
violated the law in dismissing Mr. Stanton from his 
Cabinet. And it was believed that if he were not 
convicted on this charge he would probably escape 
conviction on all the others, and so it proved. 

As the time for the first ballot drew near, the ex- 
citement throughout the country became more in- 
tense. On May 16th the first ballot was taken and 
it was found that thirty-five of the Senators had 
voted against Mr. Johnson, and nineteen had voted 
to acquit him. The President had thus escaped be- 
ing deposed from his office by a single vote. 

At first a wave of disappointment overspread the 
country at Johnson's acquittal ; but on a sober second 
thought the people began to see that his conviction 
would have been a bad precedent. Xor could it be 
forgotten that Johnson had risen by his own force 
and energy from the humblest walks of life, and that 
all through the war he was a brave and dauntless 
defender of the Union. The storm over, Johnson 
quietly served out his term, and was succeeded in the 
great office the following March by General Grant. 
Johnson then retired to his home in Tennessee. 
Early in the year 1875 he was elected from that 

297 



A Guide to American History 

State to the United States Senate, but he died in 
July of the same year, and his stormy career was 
over. 

After the trial was over Mr. Stanton resigned 
from the Cabinet and retired from public life. He 
died the next year, 1869, after being honored by an 
appointment to the Supreme Court by President 
Grant. 

Had Johnson been deposed from the Presidency 
the office would have been filled to the end of the 
term, March 4, 1869, by Senator Benjamin Wade of 
Ohio, as he was President of the Senate. Wade thus 
became one of the three men in our history who 
each came within a single vote of reaching the great 
prize and yet missed it. The other two were Aaron 
Burr and Samuel J. Tilden. 



Maximiliait in Mexico 

The attempt to set up an Old World monarchy in 
Mexico was not exactly caused by our Civil War; 
but it is certain that no such attempt would have been 
made had there been no war in this country. And 
it is equally certain that the downfall of the Mexican 
Empire was brought about by the interference of the 
United States, after the Civil War had ended. 

Louis Napoleon III, nephew of the great l^apo- 
leon who had died in 1821 on the island of St. Hel- 
ena, was now Emperor of France. He had little 
ability in comparison with his great namesake. He 
knew that his popularity in France was waning and 

298 



Aftermath of the War 

he looked about for something spectacular to do in 
order to win applause and strengthen his tottering 
throne. Here was Mexico, badly governed and ap- 
parently inviting intervention. Why not send an 
army to Mexico, since the United States is at war and 
unable to enforce the Monroe Doctrine ? Why not set 
up an empire there? What a monument it would 
be to the genius of this ambitious J^apoleon ! 

The French monarch was not a statesman. Un- 
able to manage smaller affairs at home, he had 
dreams and visions of dazzling the world with great 
undertakings in foreign lands. A wiser man would 
have hesitated long before entering on so rash an 
experiment ; but Napoleon saw only glory to himself 
and the establishing of a Latin monarchy to rival the 
great Anglo-Saxon Republic of the ]^ew World. His 
army landed at Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1862, and a 
year later the Mexican Republic was apparently con- 
quered by the French. 

Who should be the Emperor, if an empire were to 
be built on the ruins of the Republic ? There was 
no one of his own family to whom l^apoleon could 
turn. He therefore called on Maximilian, Archduke 
of Austria, and invited him to become Emperor of 
Mexico. The story of this hapless prince is a sad 
one. 

Maximilian was a brother of the present aged Em- 
peror of Austria-Hungary, Francis Joseph. He was 
a member of the world-famous House of Hapsburg 
and could trace his ancestry back more than six hun- 
dred years through a long line of kings and emperors. 

299 



A Guide to American History 

He was a man of good qualities and noble impulses. 
Tall and stalwart, with a high, broad forehead, keen 
blue eyes, a long flowing beard parted in the middle, 
he had a proud step and a kingly bearing. He could 
speak and write in seven languages. He had traveled 
widely over the world and was a favorite in every 
royal court. 

When asked to become Emperor of Mexico, Maxi- 
milian hesitated long, and consented only on the con- 
dition that the Mexican people should be willing that 
he become their ruler. The French pretended that 
the consent of the Mexicans had been obtained, and 
in 1864 the Austrian archduke sailed for Mexico. 

Maximilian was a young man, only thirty-two, and 
a few years before this he had married the beautiful 
Princess Carlotta, daughter of the King of Belgium 
and descendant of the great French sovereign. King 
Henry of ]^avarre. Unlike many royal marriages, 
theirs was a pure love match. 

Carlotta was ambitious to become an empress. 
Her husband was heir to no European throne. Here 
was the opportunity. 

They talked over and over the wonderful possi- 
bilities that lay before them. How grand it would 
be to reign in a resplendent palace, with nobles 
bowing at your feet and millions of subjects ready 
to heed your every word and glance, and waiting to 
shout their glad huzzas wherever you go ! The prize 
was too alluring to be resisted. Carlotta agreed to 
the project and sailed with her husband to Mexico. 
Little did she know that this was the beginning of 

300 



Aftermath of the War 

the end of all her earthly happiness — ^that this ro- 
mance of youth would end in a mournful tragedy. 

In May, 1864, the royal pair debarked on the 
coast of Mexico. Welcomed by crowds of people, 
they proceeded to the capital, where a splendid re- 
ception awaited them. Carlotta was supremely 
happy. She was kind and gracious to her new sub- 
jects. On her birthday she gave seven thousand dol- 
lars to feed the poor. Thousands applauded the new 
rulers, and in a few weeks their court was estab- 
lished and most of the people seemed contented. 

But there was a minor strain in all the music, and 
a discordant note in the shouts of the multitude. 
Many of the people did not join in the applause, 
others did so because they had been bribed by the 
royal party. Moreover, the Republican Government 
had not ceased to exist. The officers had fled from 
the capital, and were only waiting for a turn of the 
tide. It soon came. 

The Civil War in the United States was over. 
The Government and people had watched the inva- 
sion of Mexico by the French army and regarded 
it a downright infraction of the Monroe Doctrine. 
Louis l^apoleon had promised Maximilian that a 
French army should remain in Mexico for six years, 
or until the latter could create an adequate army 
for himself. 

Our Government informed the Emperor of France 
that this whole proceeding was highly distasteful to 
the United States, but the Emperor did not seem 
to understand. At length, the war over, we came 

301 



A Guide to American History 

out boldly and demanded that the Erench army be 
withdrawn from Mexico, and to emphasize the de- 
mand, General Sheridan was sent into Texas with 
50,000 veteran troops. Louis I^apoleon now quickly 
understood, and promised to withdraw his army. 

What was to become of Maximilian and his Em- 
pire ? His friends advised him to abdicate and re- 
turn to Europe, for it was believed that his throne 
would crumble and fall when the French support 
was withdrawn. He decided to do so; but the am- 
bitious Carlotta stayed his hand. Eor two years now 
she had been an Empress, and had been the central 
figure in a gay court modeled after those of Europe. 
Brilliant and gracious was she ; no princess in Europe 
could outshine her in the festive circle. Could she 
now endure to be degraded from her throne and be 
an Empress no more ? 

ISTo, she would first make a desperate effort. She 
would go to Europe and persuade the Erench Em- 
peror to reconsider. Perhaps she did not know of 
the inflexible force of the Monroe Doctrine. ITapo- 
leon refused her request because he could not do 
otherwise. Then Carlotta went to Rome and pleaded 
with the Pope to interfere in her husband's behalf; 
but he, too, was powerless. 

'Now came the sad news to all Europe and to Mex- 
ico that Carlotta's mind had given way. She was 
insane. 

Maximilian, still in Mexico, was overcome with 
grief at this news of his beloved wife. But his 
troubles were only begun. 

302 



Aftermath of the War 

At this moment there was a great man in Mexico. 
It was Benito Juarez (Wah-rez) an Indian, who had 
risen in public life until he had become President of 
Mexico. He was the leader of the Liberal party, 
which had opposed the coming of the French from 
the beginning. He had refused to lay down his office, 
or to meet Maximilian or support him in any way. 
When the French had departed Juarez soon had an 
army to oppose the Emperor and the few followers 
who had remained faithful to him. 

A short, sharp war was the result, and Maximilian 
was defeated and taken prisoner. Tried by a court 
martial, he was sentenced to be shot. 'No pleadings 
for clemency could reach the iron heart of Juarez. 
The fallen Emperor was led to the place of execution, 
with two of his companions. Around the doomed 
men stood three thousand soldiers. Maximilian was 
brave and undaunted. He took a costly ring from 
his finger and handed it to a friend, requesting that 
it be given to his mother. " Poor Carlotta," he cried, 
mournfully, " if I had gone with you, it would have 
been better for me." He then stepped boldly to the 
place of execution, forgave his enemies, commended 
his soul to God, and, throwing up his hand, cried, 
" Eire." 

Instantly six men, who stood with pointed muskets, 
pulled the trigger, and thus ended the short, fateful 
career of Maximilian in Mexico. 

Poor Carlotta never recovered her reason. She 
still lives (1909) and is under the care of her brother, 
the aged King Leopold of Belgium. Forty years 

303 



A Guide to American History 

have passed since her reign of glory in Mexico, but 
to this day she does not know of the tragic fate of her 
husband. Among the royal families of Europe a 
sadder story would be hard to find than that of Maxi- 
milian and Carlotta. 



The Alabama Claims 

One of the conspicuous legacies of the Civil War 
was that known as the Alabama Claims ^ that is, 
claims against the British Government for damages 
because that country permitted the Confederates to 
build vessels in her shipyards for the purpose of prey- 
ing on American merchant vessels. There were sev- 
eral of these Confederate cruisers built in English 
waters, the most famous being the Alabama to which 
we give a brief notice. 

The Alabama was built in the great English ship- 
yard of Laird and Sons on the Mersey Eiver. Dur- 
ing its construction it was known only by its num- 
ber, the 290; but it was generally understood that 
the ship was intended for the Confederate service^ 
There was a law passed by Parliament long before 
forbidding any vessel to be built or equipped in Brit- 
ish waters for use against a friendly nation. Our 
minister in London, Charles Erancis Adams, son o£ 
former President John Quincy Adams, called the at- 
tention of the authorities to this law and to the fact 
that International Law was being violated; but all 
action was deferred till it was too late. The 290 had 
been finished and had escaped. 

304 



Aftermath of the War 

The vessel steamed to the Azores, where it was sup- 
plied by a British vessel with arms, ammunition, and 
provisions. A crew was gathered, and the ship took 
the name Alabama, unfurled the Confederate banner, 
and came out in its true colors as a Confederate pri- 
vateer. This was in August, 1862, and the Alabama 
began its wonderful tour of the world, the most re- 
markable of its kind in history. 

For twenty-two months this reckless rover plowed 
the seas of both hemispheres, leaving a trail of de- 
struction. It was not a pirate ship, nor was its pur- 
pose to acquire riches. Its object was to weaken the 
:N'orth by destroying JSTorthem shipping. It cap- 
tured sixty-nine vessels, including merchantmen and 

whalers. 

The Alabama first made a grand detour of the 
Atlantic, swinging southward to the Gulf of Mexico, 
the Caribbean Sea and to the coast of South America. 
Thence it proceeded to South Africa and through the 
Indian Ocean to the East Indies and the China Sea. 
By this time the machinery was greatly worn, and 
it was decided to return to England for repairs. 
Again crossing the Indian Ocean and rounding the 
Cape of Good Hope, it went northward and stopped 
in the harbor at Cherbourg, Erance. Here ended the 
meteoric career of the Alabama, as we shall notice. 

The crew of the Alabama, numbering about 150 
men, was a motley crowd representing nearly all na- 
tionalities. Most of them were jolly tars who 
" shipped " for the excitement and experience, caring 
little or nothing about the war between the ISTorth and 

305 



A Guide to American History 

the South. They were known as a " bad lot " and 
when, as they were about to start on their journey, 
Captain Senunes, in a brief speech, expressed the be- 
lief that Providence would bless them and aid them 
to free the South from the Yankees, an old sailor 
muttered, 

" Yaas, Providence likely to bless this yer crew." 

Semmes and his officers were not ruffians, and 
would have carried on their business with some re- 
gard for decency, but the crew, on boarding a cap- 
tured vessel, became entirely unmanageable. They 
pillaged and robbed their prisoners to the last de- 
gree, but seldom hurt them, unless they made resist- 
ance. One of their captives, said to be a preacher, 
because he exhorted his fellow sailors daily on reli- 
gion, was a tall, gawky man of middle age. Two of 
the Alabama tars decided to amuse themselves by 
hazing the preacher ; but the tables were soon turned. 
The preacher turned on them, knocked them both 
down, and belabored them till they were half dead. 
The men carried the matter to the officers of the Ala- 
hama, hoping to have the preacher punished. " Served 
you right," said the officers, and there it ended. 

The vessels captured were often burned and the 
passengers and crews carried to some port and set 
free. Sometimes, however, when a captive ship had 
on board too many people to be accommodated on the 
Alahama, it was not burned, but permitted to go on 
its way. 

It was in June, 1864, that the Alabama reached 
Cherbourg, and here it met the Kearsarge, a United 

306 



Aftermath of the War 

States cruiser of about the same size, under the com- 
mand of Captain John A. Winslow. 

Captain Semmes had been accused of being a pi- 
rate and to refute such a charge and prove that his 
ship was a legitimate war vessel, and also in the hope 
of reviving the waning fortunes of the South, he chal- 
lenged Captain Winslow to a duel. This could mean 
nothing less than the destruction of one of the two 
vessels, but Winslow did not hesitate; he accepted 
the challenge. 

On the 19th of June the two vessels met for a 
death duel, in neutral waters, about seven miles out 
from the harbor. Thousands of people gathered on 
the shore to witness the spectacle. 

The two vessels approached each other and began 
to swing round and round in a circle, from a quarter 
to a half mile apart, each pouring its deadly broad- 
sides into the other. A shot from the Kearsarge 
made the Alabama "reel," as the men said, and an 
old sailor exclaimed, " A few more biffs like that and 
we may turn turtle." Scarcely had he spoken when 
a shell plowed through the hull and burst under the 
great pivot gun, tilted it out of range, killed ^ve men 
and wounded twice as many. A few minutes later 
a cannon ball from the Kearsarge struck the Ala- 
hama amidships and another at the water's edge. 
The engine stopped and would work no longer. The 
vessel shivered from top to bottom as if ready to 
plunge beneath the waves. 

" All on deck. She's going down," cried the of- 
ficers. An hour had passed since the fight had begun. 

307 



A Guide to American History 

Seven times the two ships had swung round in a 
circle. The Kearsarge had been but slightly dam- 
aged. The Alabama was ready to sink. A white flag 
was raised in token of surrender and the firing 
stopped. 

There was now a wild scene on board the Alabama. 
The one uninjured boat was soon lowered and filled 
with struggling men. Most of the men, however, 
when they saw the vessel was sinking, leaped over- 
board and a few minutes later, when the ship, with 
a mighty lurch and a vast gurgling sound, sank be- 
neath the waves, the sea for many rods was dotted 
with human heads. Who will save the struggling 
men? Ten minutes pass, and ten more. A few of 
the men are exhausted and sink to rise no more. But 
the great majority are strong swimmers. At length 
the Deerhoundj an English yacht, and boats from the 
Kearsarge come to the rescue. The men are picked 
up one by one until nearly a hundred are saved from 
a watery grave. Thus ended the strange career of 
the famous Alabama. 

When the war was over, and even before, the Brit- 
ish Government was politely informed that she would 
be expected to pay damages for the destruction of 
American shipping by the Alabama and other vessels 
built in English waters. At first the English ignored 
the question and later openly declared that they in- 
tended to do nothing in the matter. This was very 
displeasing to the United States, and in 1870 Presi- 
dent Grant made, in his annual message, a reference 
to the subject, which awakened the British public to 

308 




pD 






-J 
:3 



<D 



Aftermath of the War 

a realization that there was something quite serious 
between the two countries. 

When the British saw that we had no intention of 
dropping the matter, they were ready to talk it over 
with our officials. The English minister at Wash- 
ington proposed a Joint High Commission, to sit in 
that city and arrange to adjust the relations between 
the two countries. 

The offer was accepted and the commission met and 
produced the Treaty of Washington. It provided for 
settling several points of dispute and the most impor- 
tant of these was the Alabama Claims. It was pro- 
vided that this be settled by a tribunal or jury of five 
men to meet at Geneva, Switzerland. Only one of 
the five was to be an American and one an English- 
man. The other three were to be disinterested for- 
eigners, as a jury deciding a case in court must not 
be interested in either side. 

This tribunal met at Geneva in December, 18Y2, 
and sat for nine months. The case was argued with 
great ability on both sides, the English taking the 
ground that they were not responsible for the de- 
struction wrought by the Alahama, and the Ameri- 
cans taking the opposite side. The tribunal favored 
the American claim, and it was decided that the Brit- 
ish Government pay the United States the sum of 
$15,500,000 in gold in settlement of the Alabama 
Claims, and the money was paid to the last dollar. 



309 



CHAPTEB XX 

THE NEW NATION 

SO great was the change in our country wrought 
by the Civil War that it is not improperly 
called a new nation. There was little or no change, 
it is true, in our form of government ; but conditions 
were so changed as to put the nation on a new basis. 
The cause of the strife between the Xorth and the 
South being removed, the way was opened for a per- 
manent friendship, for a feeling of common brother- 
hood. Since the war the bitterness between the two 
great sections of the country has gradually died 
away; they have come to understand each other as 
never before, and our peace, we believe, now rests on 
a permanent basis. 

General Grant had won great fame on the battle- 
field, and this fact led to his being elected President 
after the close of the war. But while Grant was an 
able commander, he had no training and little ability 
as a statesman. Often we have chosen a military 
man for President, but only once before had we 
chosen a man who had no other than a military train- 
ing — Zachary Taylor, in 1848. This is a risky thing 
to do. A man may be a splendid soldier and yet 
prove to be a weakling in civil office. To some extent 

310 



The E"ew Nation 

this was true in the case of General Grant, and when 
he came before the country for reelection in 1872, 
there was powerful opposition in his own party. 
This led to the Liberal Republican Movement, or the 
Greeley episode, and introduces us to a remarkable 
character. 

Horace Geeeley 

Zaccheus Greeley was a farmer of New Hampshire, 
and on his little farm of fifty acres near the town of 
Amherst his son Horace was bom in 1811. Mr. 
Greeley was a good neighbor and a kind-hearted man, 
but he was a poor farmer, or rather a poor manager. 
He was always in debt and when Horace was nine 
years old the farm was seized by the sheriff and sold. 

In those days a man could be sent to prison for 
debt, and as Mr. Greeley's farm did not bring enough 
to pay all he owed, he fled from the State into Ver- 
mont, leaving his family behind. The following 
winter the family joined him in Vermont, having 
brought all their goods in a two-horse sleigh. Mr. 
Greeley had hired a house at Westhaven for sixteen 
dollars a year, and here he remained for two years, 
working by the day at whatever odd jobs he could se- 
cure. Horace and his younger brother went to school 
in winter and aided their father the rest of the year 
in earning a livelihood. They could not afford to 
buy shoes, and many a time after working among the 
thistles they had to endure the torture at night of 
having the thistle points dug out of their feet. 

Horace was a very precocious boy. When but four 

311 



A Guide to American History 

years old lie could read fluently, and at five he read 
the Bible through under the guidance of his mother. 
A wealthy gentleman, seeing that he was a very prom- 
ising boy, offered to send him to college and defray 
all his expenses ; but the Greeleys, though very poor, 
were too proud to accept the offer. 

While Horace was still very young his mind turned 
toward journalism. When eleven years old he in- 
duced his father to go with him to a newspaper office, 
where he had heard there was a boy wanted. But 
Horace was rejected because of his extreme youth. 

As he grew older he became more and more de- 
termined to learn the newspaper business, and when 
he was fifteen he heard that a bov was wanted in a 
newspaper office at East Poultney, Vermont. He 
hastened to the place and applied for the position. 

Horace was by no means an attractive youth. He 
was tall, slender, awkward, and very carelessly 
dressed. He had a wealth of tow-colored hair tend- 
ing to yellow. He was a " gawky " looking lad and 
his real intelligence did not show in his countenance. 
When he came to the office and asked, " Do you want 
a boy to learn the trade ? " the proprietor of the news- 
paper thought it strange, as he afterwards said, that 
such an unpromising boy should want to be a printer. 
After questioning him a little, however, he found that 
the boy was quite well informed for his age and was 
very ambitious. He received the appointment. His 
employer never dreamed that he was opening the way 
to one who was to become the most eminent journalist 
that America has yet produced. 

312 



The Xew ISTation 

For six months Horace was to work for his board 
only, and after that he was to receive forty dollars a 
year in addition. Of this pittance he always man- 
aged to send a little to his struggling parents. Mean- 
time they had left 'New England and moved to l^orth- 
western Pennsylvania, where they settled on a small 
farm in the wilderness, and here two or three years 
later Horace joined them. Next we find him em- 
ployed in a printing ofiice in the city of Erie. 

The several years that Horace Greeley had spent in 
the Vermont village were of vast importance to him 
in the way of gathering a fund of knowledge through 
experience. He had not only learned to set type, but 
also to edit a newspaper, to write editorials and the 
like. Furthermore, he had joined a debating society 
and had learned to stand before an audience and 
speak with ease and fluency. When scarcely sixteen 
he had organized a temperance society and in order 
to make the age limit for joining it low enough not 
to exclude himself he had a resolution adopted that 
anyone might join " when he was old enough to 
drink." 

All these things indicated that there was something 
promising for the future in this awkward boy, Hor- 
ace Greeley. How many boys of sixteen would form 
a temperance society for the public benefit and be- 
come its leader ? 

Horace Greeley was not content to spend his life 
in village printing oflSces. He felt that he would have 
a better opportunity to make a career for himself if 
he were in the great city of ISTew York and he had the 

313 



A Guide to American History 

courage to brave all the perils that might lie between 
him and success. At the age of twenty he shared his 
little savings with his parents, reserving twenty- 
five dollars for himself, and set out by way of 
the Erie Canal and the Hudson River, arriving 
at the metropolis in August, 1831. He now had 
ten dollars in his pocket, having spent fifteen 
dollars on the journey. At a cheap boarding house 
he soon found a temporary home and began his 
search for employment. He visited and was turned 
away from nearly all the printing offices in the city. 
At last, when his money as well as his courage was 
almost exhausted, he heard of a place where a printer 
was wanted. ^^Text morning he was there waiting 
long before the place was opened. He received the 
appointment, but the wages were so low that he could 
scarcely make ends meet. 

This was a beginning, and though the task was a 
hard one, he did his work so faithfully and so well 
that henceforth he had little trouble in finding em- 
ployment. 

Within a year or two Horace Greeley was familiar 
with the printing business in "New York, after which 
his rise was rapid and continuous. In 1833 he and 
a partner established the first one-cent daily in the 
United Statets. This venture did not pay and, after 
a few months, had to be given up. But our young 
editor had discovered his power and nothing could 
discourage him. 

In 1840 he established the Log Cabin in which he 
vigorously supported Harrison in the campaign of 

314 



The ISTew !N"ation 

tliat year. This paper sprang into such popularity 
that, with his printing apparatus, he could not supply 
the demand for it. 

The next year, 1841, Mr. Greeley founded the ISTew 
York Tribune, which soon became the leading news- 
paper in America, and so continued as long as its edi- 
tor lived — more than thirty years. Soon after estab- 
lishing this great newspaper Greeley became the most 
cogent political writer in the country. He was a 
Whig as long as the Whig party continued to exist, 
and a Kepublican when that party was founded in 
the fifties. At the secession of the Southern States 
in 1861 Greeley at first counseled a peaceful separa- 
tion rather than a war, but later he veered around and 
became a stanch supporter of the Union. In August, 
1862, he printed a letter to President Lincoln urging 
emancipation and entitled it, " The Prayer of Twenty 
Millions." To this letter the President sent a care- 
fully prepared answer, and both have become famous 
documents. 

At the close of the war Mr. Greeley showed the 
broadness of his spirit when he signed the bail bond 
of Jefferson Davis, who had been confined at Portress 
Monroe. 

As we have noticed, there was much opposition to 
the renomination of President Grant in 1872, and a 
large section of the party broke away and formed a 
new party, which was named the Liberal Kepublican 
party. The one object of this movement was to de- 
feat Grant. The new party held a national conven- 
tion in Cincinnati and nominated Horace Greeley for 

315 



A Guide to American History 

President Perhaps no man in the country had a 
broader knowledge of public affairs than Mr. Greeley. 
But he could have no hope of success unless the Dem- 
ocrats would also support him. They met in Balti- 
more a few weeks later and decided to do so. They 
made Greeley their candidate^ and then began a fierce 
campaign. 

Greeley played a losing game from the beginning. 
Large numbers of the Democrats refused to support 
him because he had been fighting their party all his 
life up to this time. And many Liberal Republicans, 
seeing themselves in Democratic company, went back 
to their old party before election day. 

The result was an overwhelming defeat for Mr. 
Greeley. He had not looked for such a crushing re- 
sult; the shock was more than he could bear, and 
scarcely had the shouts of the Republican victory died 
away when the great ^ew York editor was dead. 

Though Mr. Greeley was not well fitted for a polit- 
ical career, he was a great journalist, he was devoted 
to the cause of good government, and the public will 
not soon forget him. 

The Geeat Railroad Strike of 1877 

Capital and labor are both necessary to production. 
Capitalists and laborers are usually of different 
classes and one class is in the employ of the other. 
Neither class can get along without the other, and 
there should be harmony between them, but not al- 
ways are their relations harmonious. There are 

316 



The 'New ISTation 

many possible sources of strife, chief of which is the 
scale of wages. When trouble arises between the two 
classes the customary weapon of the laborers is the 
*^ strike," a paralyzing of the business for a time by 
quitting work and preventing others from taking 
their places. The most serious and extensive strike 
in the history of the country was the great railroad 
strike of 1877. 

Early in July of that year the management of the 
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad sent circulars to its thou- 
sands of employees stating that a ten per cent reduc- 
tion in their wages would be made and would go into 
effect on the 16th of that month. 

The announcement came like a blow to many, for 
their wages were already low. It created ill feeling 
and men in groups discussed the matter seriously in 
the days following. Meetings were held all along the 
line and it was decided to send a committee to expos- 
tulate with the vice president of the road; but that 
official refused even to hear the complaints of the em- 
ployees. His name was King, and he reminds us of 
another king who once upon a time refused to re- 
ceive a petition from his aggrieved colonists. 

The 16th of July dawned and the business of the 
great railroad, over its more than 1,400 miles of 
track seemed in a normal condition. The officials be- 
gan to congratulate themselves on the acceptance of 
the wage reduction by their employees without dis- 
turbance. But this was the calm that preceded the 
storm. 

Before night of that day word began to reach the 

317 



A Guide to American History 

head offices at Baltimore that at Cumberland, at Mar- 
tinsburg, and all along the line from the Atlantic 
Coast to the Ohio Valley, the crews of freight trains 
were abandoning their posts and preventing others 
from taking their places. 

On the same day thousands of other employees in 
the city of Baltimore not connected with the railroad, 
box-makers, sawyers, can-makers and the like, decided 
to strike for higher wages. This movement had its 
effect on the railroad men ; it strengthened the waver- 
ing. By the morning of the 17th there was scarcely 
a freight train moving in the whole course of the Bal- 
timore & Ohio. The first center of disturbance was 
Martinsburg, West Virginia, and Vice President 
King called on the Governor of the State to send 
militia to protect the company in its effort to run the 
trains. The governor immediately sent a body of 
armed men to Martinsburg, but they accomplished 
nothing. The strikers uncoupled the cars and hid the 
coupling pins ; they put out the fires of the engines ; 
they forced men to abandon the engines, if any at- 
tempted to run the trains. The militia was of little 
service because they fraternized with the strikers. 

The Governor of West Virginia then called on 
President Hayes for National troops and several 
hundred were sent, but they were no more successful 
than the State militia had been. All freight trains 
were blocked, but passenger trains were allowed to 
run as usual. 

At the end of two or three days the company had 
failed to break the strike or to make any impression 

318 



The New Nation 

on it. One reason for this was that public opinion 
supported the strikers rather than the company, and 
public opinion is incomparably the most powerful 
force in America. 

The strikers put out a circular stating that they 
had suffered three reductions of wages within three 
years, and that it was a matter of daily bread with 
them. The people believed in the righteousness of 
their cause, and sympathized with them as long as 
they refrained from violence. But it was not long 
until the strike spread to other States and other rail- 
roads. It became alarming to the peace of the coun- 
try, and occasioned much bloodshed and great de- 
struction of property. 

A crisis was soon reached in Baltimore. The 
strikers had been joined by the rabble and riffraff of 
the entire city — idlers, loafers, tramps, thieves and 
criminals, black and white and of both sexes, repre- 
senting every phase of slum life — all these appeared 
as a howling mob in the streets on the 20th of July. 

A regiment of soldiers attempting to move across 
the city to the Baltimore & Ohio station, found the 
way blocked by a raging, cursing mob, hurling stones 
and other missiles. At length the troops, in sheer 
desperation, leveled their guns and fired straight into 
the crowd. A yell of rage was heard from the mob 
and a few in the front ranks fell dead. The rest scat- 
tered for a moment and the troops were able to pro- 
ceed a square or two, when they were again assailed 
by the maddened people. Again they fired and still 
again. Finally, they reached the station and penned 

319 



A Guide to American History 

themselves in from the infuriated masses. Such 
were the scenes in Baltimore; but they were still 
more terrible in Pittsburg, to which city the strike 
had spread. 

The employees of the Pennsylvania Railroad had 
recently suffered a cut in wages, and now seemed the 
time to make a strike to regain them. Every freight 
train on that great system was stopped and miles of 
cars stood along the tracks, many of which were looted 
by the mob. Here, as in Baltimore, all the lower ele- 
ments of society were turned loose. In a great city 
there is always a large element at the bottom of the 
social scale, sometimes called '^ the submerged tenth," 
utterly wanting in ambition and industry, always 
ready to join in riot and pillage. These were not in- 
terested in the wages of the strikers, but seeing an 
opportunity for excitement and plunder, they joined 
the strikers and became the chief part of the mob. 
But for this class the workingmen would have been 
orderly and would have retained the respect of the 
community. 

The reign of terror in Pittsburg began vdth the 
21st of July. The mob had been gathering for two 
days. Sheriff Pife called out the militia and a body 
of troops was sent from Philadelphia. The mob had 
collected in vast numbers and the soldiers, exasper- 
ated at their hoots and jeers, opened fire and sixteen 
persons were instantly killed. 

For a moment the crowd pressed back in terror, 
but only for a moment. It came again more infuri- 
ated than before. ^' Excited men seemed to spring 

320 



The 'New l^ation 

out of the ground as if by magic/' wrote an eyewit- 
ness. They attacked the soldiers with stones and 
pistols, determined to drive them out of the city. 
The troops, numbering but a few hundred, were too 
few to protect the city or even themselves. Had they 
fired again they would probably have been destroyed 
to the last man by the furious multitude. As it was 
they were driven from one street to another and at 
length they fled to a country village some miles away, 
after twenty of them had been shot dead. Sheriff 
Fife was shot and killed by the mob, which now had 
complete control of the city. 

Then came the most dreadful scenes ever witnessed 
in any city in this country. Miles of freight cars 
were set on fire, more than 3,500 being burned to 
ashes. The great Pennsylvania depot and other rail- 
road buildings were set on fire and for a time it 
seemed that the entire city would be swept away in 
the mighty conflagration. 

A day or two of this pillage, fire, and bloodshed, 
and the fury of the mob began to subside. The better 
citizens, awakened to the danger, formed a vigilance 
committee and, with the aid of the regular oJBBcials, 
soon succeeded in restoring order. 

The strike of 1877 was the most disastrous in the 
history of the country. It spread to nearly all the 
railroads east of the Mississippi and affected 12,000 
miles of railroad lines. There was rioting and blood- 
shed in many cities. Hundreds of people were killed 
or wounded, many of them being innocent onlookers. 
Millions of dollars' worth of property was destroyed. 

321 



A Guide to American History 

For two weeks practically the entire business of the 
country east of the Mississippi was paralyzed. 

At last the passion of the rioters burned out, things 
assumed a normal aspect and slowly the strikers went 
back to their usual places of employment. In a few 
cases the strikers won what they had demanded; in 
others they made a sort of compromise with their em- 
ployers, but a majority of them went back to work at 
the old wages. 

The railroad companies, however, as well as many 
other large employers of labor, learned an important 
lesson by the great strike of 1877. They learned that 
it is better and far cheaper to reason and compromise 
with their employees than to defy them. 

The Pacific Coast and the Chinese 

The great railroad strike had scarcely subsided 
when a commotion arose in San Francisco, the fame 
of which soon spread from one ocean to the other. 

On a vacant place known as the sand lots in the 
edge of the city a large crowd of men gathered night 
after night to listen to the impassioned oratory of a 
man who wore a workingman's garb, but who seemed 
born for the public rostrum. His name was Dennis 
Kearney. Born in Ireland, he had spent his early 
manhood on the sea as a common sailor, but for some 
years had been a laborer in San Francisco. His fiery 
speeches usually ended with the same passionate edict, 
" The Chinese must go." 

This was one of the first serious anti-Chinese out- 

322 



The ¥ew Nation 

bursts on the Western coast. But the feeling against 
the Orientals had been growing for some years, and 
it now broke forth and grew in intensity till it en- 
listed the attention of the whole nation. Kearney be- 
came so violent that he was arrested and sent to jail; 
but the agitation did not subside. 

The Chinese had begun coming to the coast about 
1851, at first only a few at a time, then more and 
more until the white population became alarmed. 
The cry against the Chinese first arose from the la- 
boring classes. They complained that a Chinaman 
would work for wages on which an American would 
starve. He would work any number of hours, live 
on the cheapest food, and dwell in the meanest hovel 
or in a hole in the ground, and withal he would main- 
tain a smiling countenance. 

All this was exasperating to the American working- 
man, who found himself underbidden in every field 
of labor. E^or was there any end in sight to the com- 
ing of the Chinese. China with her four hundred 
millions of inhabitants could furnish an inexhaustible 
supply of cheap labor, especially since no Chinaman 
made any pretense of remaining in America. They 
would come and work a few years, hoarding their few 
hundred dollars of earnings, and then go back to their 
native country, whence thousands of others would 
come to repeat the process. So it might continue in- 
definitely and the American laborer would simply be 
crowded out by the Chinese coolies. 

" Gold Hills " was the name by which America 
was known in China, xind indeed, when viewed 

323 



A Guide to American History 

from the standpoint of the Chinese, it seemed like a 
land of gold, for their wages, low as they were in 
America, were said to be ten times as great as in their 
own country. The value of money was so much 
greater in China than in America that when a China- 
man went back with three or four hundred dollars he 
was looked upon by his countrymen as a rich man. 
The bait was therefore an alluring one. It was like 
the attraction of the Klondike a few years ago, when 
gold was discovered there. 

The laboring men took the lead in opposing the 
coming of the Orientals, but they were not long alone, 
nor was the labor question the chief one. The Chi- 
nese are pagans and they refused to give up one jot 
of their superstition. With all their industry they 
are addicted to low and degrading vices. 

When European immigrants come to our shores 
they come to stay; they expect to become American 
citizens, to grow up with the country. They intend 
America to be the future home of their children and 
grandchildren ; they adopt our laws and customs and 
become a part of us. But not so with the Chinese. 
They do not wish to become citizens. They care noth- 
ing for our customs, our religion, or our institutions. 
You can make a good American out of a German, a 
Frenchman, an Englishman, or a Russian Jew; but 
a Chinaman is a Chinaman all the time, and can no 
more be an American than a leopard can change his 
spots. 

Here then was a great question. Shall we permit 
this undesirable class to come in vast numbers until 

324 



The ISTew ITation 

thej drag down American life to their own level ? 
Two race problems we have already had to solve — 
the Indian problem, which began with the landing 
of the Virginians and the Pilgrims; and the negro 
question, which brought about the dreadful tragedy 
of the Civil War. Should another race problem now 
be permitted when it was in our power to nip it in 
the bud ? 

Such was the reasoning of the American people, 
and especially of the Califomians. But some rea- 
soned that we had no right to bar the Chinese or any 
other people from the country; that the earth is the 
Lord's and no people have an exclusive right to 
occupy particular portions of it. Let the Chinese 
come, argued these, we can do them good by teaching 
them the true religion. While sending missionaries 
to the far-off heathen, let us not neglect the opportu- 
nity that comes to our doors. 

But those who took this position were few in com- 
parison with the class who demanded that the Chi- 
nese must go. Frequently the feeling against the 
Chinese resulted in mob violence. One uprising at 
Los Angeles caused the death of twenty-one China- 
men. In 1885 twenty-eight Chinamen were mur- 
dered by miners in Wyoming for refusing to join a 
strike. 

Attempts were made to hamper and annoy the un- 
desirable class by State or city laws. In Oregon a 
law forbade the employment of Chinese on State con- 
tract work; but the Federal Court threw the law 
overboard on the ground that it violated our treaty 

325 



A Guide to American History 

with China, and because " the right to reside in a 
country implies the right to earn a living." 

San Francisco passed an ordinance requiring the 
hair of all prisoners to be cut short. This would have 
been a dreadful blow to the Chinese had it stood the 
test of the courts, for they value their queue as life 
itself. One day while a Chinaman was asleep some 
practical jokers cut off his queue. When he awoke 
and saw what was done, he screamed and instantly 
committed suicide by dashing his head against a stone 
wall. 

This ordinance was very properly pronounced null 
and void by the courts, because cruel, and because it 
was class legislation. 

It was not long until the Chinese question became 
a strong factor in E^ational politics. Both great par- 
ties were ready to make a bid for the electoral votes 
of the coast States and in the campaign of 1880 both 
pronounced against Chinese immigration. The same 
year a new treaty was made with China, by which 
the United States was permitted to " regulate, limit, 
or suspend '' the coming of Chinese laborers. 

This opened the way and Congress soon took the 
matter up in earnest. The first anti-Chinese measure 
passed by Congress met with a veto by the President, 
but another, in May, 1882, received his signature 
and became a law. By this law Chinese laborers 
were forbidden to come to the United States, for a 
period of ten years. But the law was evaded in this 
way : A Chinaman already here could, on returning 
to his own country, take out a certificate that would 

326 



The l!^ew IsTation 

readmit him to this country, if he chose to come back. 
Many of them would sell these certificates in China 
and others would use them in getting across our bor- 
ders, because to the inspectors all Chinese looked 
alike. Many also were smuggled across the Cana- 
dian border. These abuses were corrected by an ad- 
ditional law passed in 1888, forbidding the return to 
the United States of all Chinese who went back to 
their own land. 

Last came the Geary law of 1892, the most sweep- 
ing of its kind ever enacted by any country. This 
law was to continue for ten years, but was extended 
at the end of that time. It is so effective that Chinese 
laborers are almost wholly debarred from the United 
States, and thus w^e are relieved of a race problem 
that might have become a serious menace to our in- 
stitutions. 

Custer and the Battle of the Little Big Horn" 

Of all races of men on the earth the American In- 
dian is the most persistent in refusing to become civ- 
ilized. With all his four hundred years of contact 
with the most enlightened of races the Indian stands 
about where he did in the time of Columbus. It is 
true that the Indians have learned the use of the 
horse and of firearms from the whites, and many of 
them have adopted the white man^s religion ; but they 
have no desire to build cities and schools and fac- 
tories. If their children are educated, it is through 
the efforts of their pale-faced brethren and not their 

32Y 



A Guide to American History 

own. In the Indian reservations of the West the 
mode of life is very much the same as it was in the 
days of King Philip or of Powhatan. 

Forty years ago there were a great many Indians 
— ^the Sioux and other tribes — living in an almost 
wild state in the valley of the Big Horn Piver in 
Montana. They had no desire for civilization. The 
country was well watered and the forests and moun- 
tain slopes abounded in buffaloes, deer and antelope. 
But the time came, as it had come in the East long 
before, when the ever-restless white man could not 
keep away from the Indian lands. 

The red men seriously objected to the building of 
railroads through their hunting ground; they re- 
sisted the coming of white settlers and especially of 
the soldiers. The discovery of gold in the Black 
Hills, the building of transcontinental railroads, the 
vast stretches of pasture land allured the white man, 
and it was certain that the Indians could not long re- 
main in their isolation. The nearer the approach of 
the whites the more angry they grew and by the be- 
ginning of 1876 there were several thousand hostile 
Indians in the valleys of Montana. 

General George A. Custer was one of the com- 
manders in the West. A native of Ohio, he had 
graduated at West Point in the spring of 1861, just 
in time to take part in the battle of Bull Pun. 
Throughout the war he served with the army of the 
Potomac, was a member of McClellan's staff and was 
made brigadier general in 1863, at the age of twenty- 
four. He was one of the ablest and most reckless 

328 



The ISTew l^ation 

young cavalry leaders in the war. On one occasion 
he dashed almost up to the suburbs of Hichmond, 
captured a hundred men in the outer trenches, and 
escaped with no loss to himself. He was with Sheri- 
dan in the famous raid of the Shenandoah Valley and 
at Five Forks, and with Grant at the final scenes at 
Appomatox, where he received with his own hand the 
flag of truce sent by Lee at that famous surrender. 

The war over, Custer was sent into Texas and later 
to the Far West. We find him in the army of General 
Terry who, in 1876, was sent against the hostile 
Sioux and kindred tribes. 

Early in May the army broke camp and marched 
from Bismarck, IN'orth Dakota, to the valley of 
the Big Horn. Terry decided to divide his army 
into three parts, one part to be commanded by him- 
self, another by General Gibbon, and a third by Gen- 
eral Custer. On June 23d they separated; each was 
to make a certain detour through the valley and get 
all possible information about the Indians, after 
which they were to meet and join their forces on the 
evening of the 26th and make ready for a general 
battle. 

Custer proceeded to the very heart of the Indian 
country, marching almost day and night for fifty 
hours. He was at least a day ahead of time, his men 
were tired, sleepy, and hungry, and yet he offered 
battle to several thousand Indians, without orders 
from General Terry, as soon as he came within strik- 
ing distance. 

Why did Custer thus disobey orders and attack a 

329 



A Guide to American History 

body of Indians ten times greater in numbers than bis 
own army? It is believed tbat be had no idea that 
there were so many Indians as there proved to be, 
and that he disobeyed orders because he wished to 
win all the glory of a victory to the exclusion of his 
fellow officers. 

The Indian chief who had the greatest influence 
among the Sioux at this time was Sitting Bull ; but 
this chief was not present at the battle. It was 
said that he was a coward (an unusual thing for an 
Indian) and whenever his braves were in battle he 
found something to do a mile or two away. The 
chiefs who led against Custer were Crazy Horse, 
Crow King, Rain-in-the-Face and one or two others. 

Custer had with him only a part of the troops of 
his division, about 300 men, when he rode up to the 
Indian town on the Little Big Horn River on that 
fatal 25th of June. In a short time hundreds of In- 
dian horsemen had poured out on the plain to meet 
the w^hite invaders of their soil. Custer's little band 
was surrounded by an army of perhaps 3,000 war- 
riors, trained in the art of savage warfare and armed 
as well as the whites themselves. 

The history of the battle was afterwards gathered 
from the Indians, for not a white man was left alive 
to tell the story. Custer and his men fought with 
desperate bravery, but they were shot down merci- 
lessly, sometimes horse and rider falling in a heap 
together. At the end of two hours scarcely a fourth 
of them were left alive. A few of them tried to es- 
cape to the mountains; but they were pursued and 

330 



The 'New ^N'ation 

killed to the last man. At the end of three hours the 
little band had all perished. Of the horses, one es- 
caped, a noble charger named Comanche, and was 
found some miles from the battlefield with seven bul- 
let wounds. A soldier was detailed to take care of the 
horse as long as it lived and no one was ever permitted 
to ride it. The battle over, the squaws swarmed over 
the field with picks and axes and mutilated the bodies 
of their fallen enemies in a frightful manner. Most 
of the clothing and every article of value were torn 
from the dead men, and thus they were found a few 
days later when their comrades came to bury them. 
General Custer had been shot through the temple and 
in the left side. His body was not mutilated. It was 
said that a chief named Rain-in-the-Face, whom Cus- 
ter had befriended in the past, finding his body, said, 
^' My poor friend," and then stood and guarded it 
from the infuriated squaws. 

General Custer's widow has written a book en- 
titled " Boots and Saddles '' in which she gives a de- 
tailed account of life with the general in the West. 
The book is well worth reading, though it does not 
treat of this final battle, which rendered her a widow. 



331 



CHAPTEE XXI 

OUR ISLAND POSSESSIONS 

FOE. more than a hundred years after the adop- 
tion of our Constitution the United States had 
no colonial possessions, unless we except Alaska. 
While England, Erance, Germany, and other coun- 
tries were taking possession of Africa and other parts 
of the world, we remained at home developing our 
continent, and even took pride in the fact that we did 
not own colonies. But there came a time, only a 
few years ago, when this condition was changed. 
The change was brought about chiefly by our recent 
war with Spain, as we shall notice ; but first let us 
take a glance at 

The Haw All at?" Islaitds 

There is no more beautiful group of islands in the 
world than the Hawaiian Islands. They lie in the 
Pacific Ocean in the latitude of Cuba, and are 2,100 
miles from San Erancisco. The climate is like per- 
petual spring. The scenery is magnificent. Vol- 
canic mountains with their slopes and intervening 
valleys laden with evergreen forests and luxuriant 
tropical vegetation, with the deep blue of the encir- 

332 



Our Island Possessions 

cling sea in the distance, presents a charm to the eye 
that no one who beholds it can ever forget. 

The islands were discovered in 1778 by Captain 
James Cook, a famous navigator of the British royal 
navy. Returning the next year to spend the winter 
months in this charming place, Captain Cook met 
the fate of Magellan in the Philippines. He was 
killed by the natives. Pie had given the group the 
name of the Sandwich Islands, after the Earl of Sand- 
wich, a patron of his expedition. But this name has 
fallen into disuse, and the islands are known as Ha- 
waii, which is the name of the largest of the group. 

Eight of the islands are inhabited, the largest being 
Hawaii with an area of 4,015 square miles, and the 
second is Maui, 728 square miles, and the third is 
Oahu, 598 square miles, on which is situated the 
capital city Honolulu. 

The islands are of volcanic origin, and at present 
the largest active volcano in the world is Kilauea, 
on the island of Haw^aii. On the island of Maui is 
the largest extinct volcano in the world, with a crater 
twenty miles in circumference and 2,500 feet in 
depth. 

The soil of the islands is very fertile, and there are 
other very attractive features. Pierce storms are 
unknown in Hawaii ; there are no poisonous reptiles 
or dangerous wild animals ; the climate is delightful, 
tempered by the soft, perennial breeze from the sea. 
The hills and valleys abound in bright flowers, of 
which there are 900 species, and in forests of palms 
and other tropical vegetation. 

333 



A Guide to American History 

Little is known of the history of Hawaii before 
1820, when the first Christian missionaries arrived 
in the islands. Soon after them came the traders 
and the whalers. Many a weary crew of whale fish- 
ermen, after a long, dreary voyage of the Arctic seas, 
found and still find these islands a delightful haven 
for rest and recreation. When the missionaries 
came they found the natives docile and easily won 
away from their old, idolatrous religion. Almost 
the entire population were won to accept Christianity. 
It is said that this wholesale conversion without force 
of an entire population has no parallel in the world's 
history. 

The natives are apparently a mixture of Polyne- 
sian and Malayan races. They are somewhat darker 
in color than the American Indians, are tall and stal- 
wart, courteous and affectionate, with soft, mellow 
voices, and an inclination to music and oratory. 
The one great defect in the Hawaiian character is 
indolence. They do not like to work. When the 
white man came to his island home and introduced 
new industries that make for modern progress and 
civilization, the Hawaiian, accustomed for ages to 
gathering his food from the palm tree and the sea, as 
nature provided it, could not enter into the new life. 
He stood aloof, and when laborers were needed they 
were imported by thousands from China and Japan. 

The Hawaiian race is dying out. Seventy years 
ago there were more than 100,000 natives of pure 
blood; to-day there are scarcely 30,000. Two rea- 
sons are given for this rapid decline. First, the Ha- 

334 



Our Island Possessions 

waiians are far more susceptible to contagious dis- 
eases than are the other races of the islands. In 
1848 one fourth of the whole population died of 
measles, and a few years later several thousand died 
of smallpox. Pneumonia and typhoid are far more 
fatal to them than to the other races. Furthermore, 
Hawaii is one of the few places in the world where 
leprosy is still a prevalent disease, and it is the native 
who is especially susceptible to it. On one of the 
islands is a colony of lepers — a thousand or more — 
and the proportion of American victims to natives 
is about one to two hundred. 

Second, the Hawaiian women prefer American 
or Chinese husbands to their own race. A great 
many of the Chinese, who are industrious and good 
providers, find wives among the native women, and 
a large part of the rising generation are the children 
of Chinese fathers and Hawaiian mothers. Probably 
within haK a century the pure Hawaiian race will 
have disappeared from the islands. 

In 1824 the king and queen of Hawaii visited 
England and both died there of the measles. Then 
a witty poet, or one who thought himself witty, 
wrote : 

"Waiter, two Sandwiches," cried Death 
And their wild majesties resigned their breath. 

For many years the island group was looked upon 
with covetous eyes by various European countries and 
by the United States. Its great value lies in the fact 
that it is a most convenient station for vessels be- 

335 



A Guide to American History 

tween America and the Orient. There is a large 
and growing American population in the islands, 
largely descendants of the missionaries who were sent 
there long ago. These were watching for an oppor- 
tunity to overthrow the monarchy and put the islands 
under control of the United States. The natives 
were not specially averse to the change, for their own 
rulers were often tyrants and granted them few 
privileges. 

At length the opportunity came. Queen Liliou- 
kalani refused to continue government by a legis- 
lature, which her predecessor had established, and 
in January, 1893, the people, American for the most 
part, rose in rebellion, deposed the queen and applied 
for annexation to the United States. 

President Harrison sent a treaty of annexation to 
the Senate; but in March he went out of office, and 
President Cleveland, who succeeded him, withdrew 
the treaty from the Senate, on the ground, as he said, 
that it was un-American to govern any people with- 
out their consent, and the native Hawaiians had not 
asked for annexation. He even offered to restore the 
queen to her throne if she would promise not to pun- 
ish those who had deposed her; but she would not 
agree to this, and she never recovered her kingdom. 

The next year the Republic of Hawaii was estab- 
lished, and Sanford B. Dole, son of a former Amer- 
ican missionary, was elected president. But a few 
years later (in August, 1898) the republic came to an 
end and the islands were annexed to the United 
States. In June, 1900, they were organized as a 

336 



Our Island Possessions 

territory, with a regular territorial government and 
a representative in Washington, who has a seat, hut 
not a vote, in the Lower House of Congress. 

The population of the Hawaiian Islands in 1900 
was 154,000, of whom 28,832 were natives. The 
whites numbered 28,533, with nearly as many China- 
men and twice as many Japanese. The one great 
product is raw sugar, of which the exports in 1908 
amounted to $36,000,000. The other industries of 
growing importance are the production of coffee, 
pineapples, and rubber. The islands are becoming 
more and more a pleasure resort for wealthy people 
from all parts of the world. 

The Spanish War 

Our only war with a European nation, except 
England, was that with Spain in 1898. It continued 
but four months, from April till August, and, like 
our war with Mexico in the forties, the Americans 
won in every battle. The war came on account of 
Cuba. 

Spain had owned Cuba since the time of Colum- 
bus, who first discovered the island. She had pos- 
session also of Mexico and all the countries of Cen- 
tral and South America, except Brazil, for a great 
many years; but early in the nineteenth century 
they rose in rebellion against her and won their in- 
dependence. In the JSTew World only Cuba and 
Porto Pico remained to Spain. 

So tyrannical and oppressive was Spanish rule in 

337 



A Guide to American History 

Cuba that the Cuban people revolted again and again 
without success. In 1868 a war began and contin- 
ued for ten years. Spain being wholly unable to put 
down this revolt, induced the Cubans to lay down 
their arms by making promises to reform, after which 
she speedily violated them. Thirteen years passed 
when, in 1895, the Cubans rose against their op- 
pressors in larger numbers than ever before. In a 
short time they had possession of almost the entire 
island except Havana and a few other cities. Spain 
sent over thousands of troops, but they made no head- 
way against the Cubans. 

The American people looked on, very much in- 
terested. We sympathized with the Cubans because 
they were fighting for liberty. ^JsTothing appeals to 
the American heart so quickly as liberty, and noth- 
ing seems more detestable than oppression. 

There were a great many people in Cuba, farmers, 
for the most part, who took no part in the war. 
Spain grew so desperate in her efforts to conquer 
the Cubans that she decided to force these people from 
their farms into the towns so that they could no 
longer furnish food to the armies. This was done 
by General Weyler, the Spanish commander in Cuba, 
who has been called " the butcher.'' His evident pur- 
pose was to conquer the island by depopulating it, for 
these people, forced from their homes, starved to 
death by thousands. 

Our people heard the wailing cry of the starving 
Cubans, and it seemed as the voice of a brother's 
blood crying from the ground. They became wild 

338 



Our Island Possessions 

with anger and demanded a declaration of war 
against Spain. Our fine battleship, the Maine, was 
blown to fragments in the Havana harbor. Whether 
the deed was done by the Spaniards or not was never 
certainly known ; but at any rate it was not this that 
brought our war with Spain. It was rather the cry 
of distress from downtrodden Cuba, and no war was 
ever waged for a nobler purpose. 

War was declared against Spain in April and the 
response from the people was hearty and immediate. 
Men from all parts of the country, north and south, 
left their farms, their offices, and places of business, 
and shouldered arms for the rescue of Cuba from the 
tyrannical hand of Spain. 

The first notable conflict of the war was a naval 
battle in the far-off Orient. The Philippine Islands, 
which belonged to Spain, were guarded by a fleet, 
and against it was sent an American fleet, which was 
then in Chinese waters under the command of Ad- 
miral Dewey. On the last night of April, Dewey 
sailed stealthily under the cover of darkness into the 
harbor of Manila Bay. ]^ext morning. May 1st, he 
met the Spanish fleet, and in a furious battle of a few 
hours destroyed it utterly. This meant the end of 
Spanish rule in the Philippine Islands. 

Two months later a similar naval battle occurred 
in Cuban waters, at the harbor of Santiago. For 
a month an American fleet under Admiral Sampson 
had watched at the mouth of the harbor for the com- 
ing of the Spanish under Admiral Cervera, which 
had found a refuge there. On the morning of July 

339 



A Guide to American History 

3d a thin column of smoke was descried far up the 
bay, and it was soon discovered that the Spanish 
fleet was about to make a daring dash for liberty. 
The Americans were on the alert, and as the Spanish 
ships swung out into the open sea they were attacked 
with the utmost fury. They resisted as best they 
could, but their chances of victory or even of escap- 
ing were meager indeed, for they were outclassed in 
every respect. !N'ot one escaped being captured or 
sunk, and hundreds of their brave defenders found a 
grave at the bottom of the sea. 

This victory was very similar to that of Manila. 
Hundreds of Spaniards perished in each battle, while 
but one American was killed at Santiago and none at 
Manila. 

Meantime there was some fierce fighting on land. 
General Shafter landed an army of 16,000 men on 
the Cuban coast in June near Santiago. After cap- 
turing the fortified town of El Caney and fighting 
the battle of San Juan, the first week in July, the 
American army captured the city of Santiago, which 
surrendered about the middle of July. By this time 
nearly all of Cuba was under American control. 

Late in July General Nelson A. Miles embarked 
with an army for Porto Rico, the only other Spanish 
possession in the ^N'ew World. He landed, won a few 
slight battles, and was pushing into the interior when 
suddenly all operations came to a stop on account of 
the news that an agreement had been reached by the 
United States and Spain. The war thus ended and 
the conditions were that Spain should give up all con- 

340 




P5 



a:) 

0) 



I 



Our Island Possessions 

trol over Cuba and cede Porto Pico to the United 
States, while the future control of the Philippines 
was to be determined by a treaty yet to be arranged. 

Both countries sent commissioners to meet at Paris 
early in the autumn. This commission met and for 
many weeks labored for a final settlement. One 
question in dispute was: What shall be done with 
the Philippines? They, as well as Cuba, had been 
in revolt against Spanish misrule, and it seemed cruel 
now to hand them back to the oppression of Spain. 
And to give them entire independence was to make 
them a prey to foreign powers, for they had not 
learned the art of self-government. 

The only course left was for the United States to 
take over the islands. Spain objected to this most 
vigorously, but when she was offered $20,000,000 as 
a balm for her wounded pride, she agreed to it, and 
the entire Philippine archipelago became the posses- 
sion of the United States. 

The Philippin"e IsLAiq-Ds 

This great group of tropical islands lies about ten 
degrees nearer the equator than the Hawaiian group, 
and is about eighteen times greater in extent. There 
is no winter in the Philippines; but there are fre- 
quent destructive storms. The trade winds blow 
from the northeast for eight months in the year, 
from October to June, and during the remaining four 
months the southwest monsoon blows unceasingly. 

The number of the islands exceeds 3,000, a great 

341 



A Guide to American History 

many of them being barren volcanic rocks on wbich 
no human being pretends to live. Only 342 of the 
islands are inhabited by man. Many of these are 
very small, but Luzon, the largest of the group, is 
40,969 square miles in extent — about the size of the 
State of Ohio. Mindanao comes second with 36,292 
square miles, and Samar third with 5,031 square 
miles. 

The people of the islands are called Filipinos, and 
they are divided into many tribes. They are of the 
Malay race, and a very large majority are civilized. 
They have schools and churches, and have made some 
progress in the arts and sciences, though they cannot 
be compared with the most highly civilized nations. 
The entire population of the islands is slightly above 
7,500,000. 

The most numerous of the tribes is the Visayan, 
of whom there are more than three million. Next 
to these come the Tagalogs with 1,400,000. These 
two tribes are the most intelligent in the islands. 
The rilipinos are supposed to have inhabited the 
islands in modern times only. They, like the Amer- 
ican Indians, had not advanced far enough in civili- 
zation to record their own history at the time of their 
discovery in 1521 by Magellan, the famous navigator. 
It is believed, however, that some centuries before 
this time they had come to the islands and crowded 
out the aborigines, who were not of the Malay stock. 

Of these aborigines, about 24,000 still remain. 
They are a dwarfish people scarcely three feet high, 
with almost black skin and coarse woolly hair. They 

342 



Our Island Possessions 

are timid and shy and as wild as the animals about 
them. Without clothing and without a fixed home 
they wander among the mountains living on roots, 
nuts, and small game. This tribe is known as the 
Negritos. They are probably among the lowest of 
the human race. 

The Philippine islands abound in lofty mountains 
and tropical forests, yielding valuable timbers. The 
soil is fertile, and the chief products are sugar, hemp, 
tobacco, and coffee. 

The one and only large city is Manila, on the 
island of Luzon, with about 225,000 inhabitants. 
This city is the center of art, commerce, and govern- 
ment, in fact, of all that represents Filipino civili- 
zation. 

Scarcely had the treaty between the United States 
and Spain been completed when the Filipinos rose in 
rebellion against the Americans, declaring that they 
had not revolted against one master only to be 
brought under the domination of another, and that 
they would be content with nothing short of complete 
independence. The revolt was led by an able young 
leader named Aguinaldo, who soon had 30,000 men 
under arms. Thousands of additional American 
troops were sent to the islands; the war continued 
for two years and cost the United States about $200,- 
000,000. Hundreds of slight battles were fought. 

At length, in the spring of 1901, Aguinaldo hav- 
ing been captured by a clever strategy, and the Fili- 
pinos having been convinced that America was dis- 
posed to deal justly and kindly with them, giving 

343 



A Guide to American History 

them a large share in their own government, they 
laid down their arms and the war was over. Since 
then the islanders have enjoyed a far better govern- 
ment than ever before, and they have advanced 
greatly in prosperity and happiness. Their school 
system has been very much improved, and a thousand 
American school teachers have gone to the islands 
to aid in raising the standard of education. 



How THE EiLiPiiTos Live 

Let us take a look at the Filipinos as we find them 
in everyday life — ^not the so-called higher class, who 
live in stone or brick houses and wear clothes made 
in Europe or America, not the wild tribes who 
scarcely have a fixed home or wear any clothes at all, 
but the middle class, the rank and file who make up 
the masses of the people. 

The average Filipino lives in a bamboo house. 
The bamboo is a remarkable tree, or rather a species 
of grass, jointed like cane. It grows to the height 
of one hundred feet and is about one foot in diameter 
at the base. The logs are used as timber for the 
framework of the house; split into strips it forms 
the walls, the floor, the beds, and, indeed, almost 
every piece of furniture that is used in the home. 

The Filipino family is usually a large one and 
often they all live in a house of a single room, sleep- 
ing at night on bamboo mats spread on the earthen 
floor. The houses are for the most part owned by the 
occupants. The average farm is not more than eight 

344 



Our Island Possessions 

acres. The farming utensils are crude. The plow 
is made of wood and is drawn bj a carabao, a species 
of buffalo ; or in many cases the farmer does not use 
a plow at all; he scratches the ground with a split 
stick. The main crop is rice, which forms the chief 
food of the whole population. 

The children are usually respectful and obedient 
to the parents. One of the chief occupations in the 
home is weaving on the hand loom. This is done by 
the women and girls. In the towns there are some 
factories where they make shoes of a coarse grade, 
various kinds of pottery and other things. The mar- 
ket place is a popular resort for the Filipinos, espe- 
cially the women, who peddle their wares and talk 
and gossip with their friends sometimes for half a 
day without stopping. If a market woman happens 
to find some one who buys all her stock, she seems 
disappointed, as she no longer has a pretext for going 
about, which seems to be her greatest enjoyment. 

The death rate in the Philippines is much higher 
than in Europe or America, the average length of 
life being only two thirds what it is with us. One 
cause of this no doubt is that they are unsanitary in 
their habits. They do not take the proper care of their 
children and great numbers of them die in infancy. 
They are very careless about contagious diseases. If 
the cholera sweeps over the islands the people take 
little precaution against its spreading, and thousands 
of them fall victims to its ravages. They allow 
filth to collect in and around their houses, nor are 
they careful about their food. But in strange con- 

345 



A Guide to American History 

trast to all this, they are very cleanly of person. 
Every one — men, women, and children — takes a bath 
every day, not in a bathtub, but in the sparkling 
brooks and rivers under the open sky. 

The great besetting sin of the Filipinos is gam- 
bling. The women and even the children gamble 
in various kinds of games, especially with cards. But 
the men are the chief gamblers, and their universal 
method is through cockfighting. This is the most 
widespread evil in the islands. There are cockpits, 
built for the purpose, with tiers of seats for specta- 
tors. Men will neglect their work and go a long dis- 
tance to see a cockfight, often taking their boys with 
them and paying their last bit of money for admis- 
sion. Those who have money after paying the en- 
trance fee will probably bet all they have left on the 
outcome. A father will divide his cash with his boys, 
so that all may enjoy the excitement of betting. 
Many of them will go home penniless, and their fam- 
ilies will suffer for the necessaries of life. This 
national evil is abating since the United States has 
come into control ; but under Spanish rule it was en- 
couraged, and it is said to have been introduced by 
the Spaniards. 

In many ways the Filipinos are an interesting 
people. They are not very ambitious or energetic, 
and, like the Hawaii ans, are willing to take a back 
seat when they come in contact with foreigners. In 
1898 there were probably 100,000 Chinese in the 
islands, chiefly in the cities and towns, and they had 
control of nearly all the important industries. 

346 



Our Island Possessions 

Our possession of the Philippine Islands brings 
to us a vast responsibility. We can do great things 
for them by raising their standard of education, 
morals, and religion, by teaching self-government, 
and infusing into their national life a higher form 
of civilization. To do this is the great duty of our 
people, and every American should feel his part of 
the responsibility. 

PoETO Rico 

It was Cuba, as we have seen, that caused the war 
with Spain, but as Cuba became a self-governing re- 
public and not a possession of the United States, we 
turn our attention to Porto Rico, which was ceded 
to the United States by Spain at the close of the war. 

The island of Porto Rico was discovered by Co- 
lumbus on his second voyage, in 1493. Some years 
later Ponce De Leon came to the island and found 
that it was inhabited by a mild-mannered tribe of 
Indians, who received the Spaniards with great 
kindness. But the Spaniards mistreated them and 
soon there was war which resulted in the entire ex- 
termination of the Indians. 

Porto Rico, like the Philippines and Hawaii, lies 
within the tropics where frigid winds never blow and 
snow is never seen. But the climate is tempered by 
the cool breezes from the mountains and the sea, and 
excessive heat is seldom known. The scenery is 
diversified with luxuriant forests and broad mead- 
ows, with groves of cocoa palms and fields of sugar 
cane. 

347 



A Guide to American History 

The island is a little over a hundred miles in 
length and thirty odd miles in width, comprising 
3,500 square miles, and is the home of 900,000 peo- 
ple. The inhabitants are of Spanish descent with 
a slight mixture of negro and Indian blood, some- 
what darker than the Caucasian and much lighter 
than the African. Like most tropical people they are 
rather indolent and easy going. Only in the tem- 
perate zone does man develop energy and the attend- 
ant civilization to his fullest capacity. Man in the 
frigid zones is dwarfed by the incessant cold and his 
scanty supply of food. In the tropics he needs little 
clothing, nature supplies his food, and the perennial 
heat makes him listless and indolent. 

San Juan is the most interesting town in the 
island. It is forty years older than St. Augustine, 
Florida, is the only walled city in the jurisdiction 
of the United States, and is one of the finest speci- 
mens of military architecture in the Western Hemi- 
sphere. Here also is Moro Castle, a magnificent cita- 
del of solid masonry, with its lighthouse tower 170 
feet high, with its tiers of batteries and its dismal 
dungeons. 

One of the chief attractions of Porto Rico is the 
great military road across the island, 85 miles in 
length, between the cities of San Juan and Ponce. 
It was built many years ago by the Spaniards at great 
expense. It winds among the hills, through the sweet- 
scented forests, crossing the gushing streams from the 
mountains over stone bridges. 

The soil of Porto Pico is exceedingly fertile and 

348 



Our Island Possessions 

the climate delightful; but an occasional hurricane 
sweeps over the island and leaves frightful destruc- 
tion in its trail. The people, since the American 
occupation, have made commendable progress in edu- 
cation and in industrial life, and the time may come 
when the island will become a State in our Union. 



The Islands of Samoa 

The Samoan Islands are a tiny group in the South 
Pacific Ocean exactly twice as far from San Fran- 
cisco as the Hawaiian Islands — i,200 miles. The 
group lies in the Southern Hemisphere a few degrees 
north of the Tropic of Capricorn. There are a dozen 
or more small islands, comprising about 1,000 square 
miles. The islands are simply the exposed summit 
of a vast submarine mountain chain. 

The climate of Samoa, with its fresh and exhil- 
arating breeze from the summer sea, is the most en- 
chanting in the world most of the time; but the is- 
lands lie in the hurricane belt, and at times they are 
swept with appalling tornadoes; again, they are 
rocked with dreadful earthquakes. Here in this re- 
mote part of the world dwell nearly 40,000 people, 
partially civilized and nominally Christian. 

The islands lie directly in the track of the vessels 
plying between our Pacific Coast and Australia, and 
are therefore of great importance as a station in the 
long voyage. 

In 1878 the United States made a treaty with the 
native chief by which we acquired the right of a naval 

349 



A Guide to American History 

station in the harbor of Apia, the chief town, situated 
on the island of Upolu, the largest of the group. 

A few years later serious trouble arose with Ger- 
many, which laid claim to the entire group. Ger- 
many had had three European wars — ^with Denmark, 
Austria, and France — ^within a few years and was 
feeling quite puffed up with her brilliant successes. 
It was said that Prince Bismarck, who was the real 
master of Germany at the time, could, with a frown, 
an impatient speech, or a curt dispatch, send the 
shivers down the back of every foreign minister in 
Europe. 

Suddenly, one day in April, 1886, the German 
consul at Apia, instructed by his Government, raised 
the German flag over the town and declared that 
none but the German Government should henceforth 
rule over it. As there were several German warships 
in the harbor, he felt that he could do as he chose. 
The British consul, remembering the great prestige 
of Germany at that moment, hesitated to act without 
instructions from home. But the American repre- 
sentative had no such scruples. He ran up the Amer- 
ican flag and declared the town under an American 
protectorate. When Bismarck heard of the incident 
he was astonished at the audacity of the Yankees, who 
dared to defy the power of the German Empire. 

Some time later the Germans deposed the ruling 
king and set up one of their own choosing. The 
natives refused to acknowledge this puppet and fled 
from the towns to the forests in the interior of the 
islands where the American and British consuls fur- 

350 



Our Island Possessions 

nished them with arms. The Germans, determined 
to surprise them and seize their chiefs, sent a bat- 
talion of marines to the forest one morning before 
daylight. The Samoans fell on them in large num- 
bers, and the Germans fled to their ships with a loss 
of fifty men. 

On one occasion a German warship, the Adler^ was 
about to bombard the town of Apia because the peo- 
ple refused to accept the new king. But there was an 
American warship in the harbor whose captain, an 
Irish-American named Leary, would rather fight 
than eat, it was said. Leary swung his vessel between 
the Adler and the shore, and then curtly said to the 
German captain, ^^ If you fire, you must fire through 
the ship which I have the honor to command." 

The commander of the Adler saw that the situation 
was grave, that his firing would probably bring war 
between his country and the United States, and he 
shrank from the responsibility. He then turned tail 
and steamed sullenly away. 

In March, 1889, while the threatened trouble be- 
tween the two great nations about Samoa was still 
pending, the islands were visited by a tornado the 
most destructive ever known in the islands. There 
was not much loss of life, but every American and 
German ship in the harbor was sunk or disabled by 
the terrific storm. 

Soon after this Prince Bismarck proposed a con- 
ference at Berlin to settle the Samoan question. The 
offer was accepted, and three American commission- 
ers were sent to the German capital. Bismarck had 

351 



A Guide to American History 

no love for America, and had even gone so far as to 
show his feeling by expelling Germans who had been 
naturalized in America from German soil on twenty- 
four hours' notice. So great was his prestige in Eu- 
rope that he now expected an easy victory with the 
Americans on the Samoan affair. But when he made 
certain demands — that the king the Germans had set 
up in Samoa should be recognized, and the like — 
the Americans refused their assent. Then the chan- 
cellor affected great indignation, and the Americans 
cabled the whole proceedings to their Government. 
Secretary of State Blaine flashed back the answer: 
" The extent of the chancellor's irritability is not the 
measure of American rights." 

This answer braced up the Americans and they 
refused to yield a single point. The outcome was that 
Bismarck, the " man of blood and iron," backed down 
and yielded every point at issue. It was said that 
this was the first diplomatic reverse that the great 
German statesman had ever experienced. 

By this agreement Samoa was recognized as neu- 
tral territory with an independent government. Some 
years later, however, the islands were divided by a 
friendly agreement, between the United States and 
Germany, the former receiving the island of Tutuila 
and a few smaller ones. In addition to Hawaii and 
our portion of Samoa there are a few other islands 
scattered through the broad expanse of the Pacific 
which have come into the possession of the United 
States. 



362 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE PANAMA CANAL 

OUR final chapter, a short one, will be devoted 
to a notice of the great ship canal, which is 
now being constructed between the Atlantic Ocean 
(Caribbean Sea) and Pacific Ocean, severing Xorth 
and South America. The only other waterway of 
the same class, which can be compared with that at 
Panama when finished, is the Suez Canal. A few 
words about this will be interesting. 

The Suez Canal, connecting the Mediterranean 
and the Red seas, has been in operation for forty 
years, having been completed in 1869, the year that 
marks the completion of our first transcontinental 
railroad. This great canal is 100 miles long, and 
wide enough for ships to pass one another at any 
point. It required ten years to make the cut, and 
cost a hundred million dollars. The laborers, about 
10,000 in number, were for the most part Egyptian 
fellahs, who received from ten to fifteen cents a day 
for their labor at first; but later they were forced 
by their ruler to work without pay, very much as the 
Hebrews had been forced by the Egyptian Pharaohs 
thousands of years ago. A great deal of the work 
was done without tools, the dirt being carried 

353 



A Guide to American History 

away in baskets, which the laborers filled with their 
sands. 

The Suez Canal was built chiefly with French 
capital, and its construction was due to the genius 
of one great Frenchman, Ferdinand de Lesseps. The 
English refused to aid in building the canal and even 
opposed it ; but when it was finished and was proved 
to be successful, the British Government bought a 
controlling interest in it (1876) and still controls it. 
It is a remarkably good investment, paying fourteen 
per cent or upward in annual dividends. 

Ships of all nations may pass through the canal 
by paying toll — about $1.50 per ton of cargo and 
$1.50 per passenger. It costs a large vessel at least 
$20,000 to pass through the canal, and requires about 
eighteen hours. But this is vastly cheaper and 
quicker than sailing around Africa, as they formerly 
did, in going from the Mediterranean to the Indian 
Ocean. Let us now return to our own hemisphere. 

Begi]!^niitgs at Panama 

In 1850 a treaty was made between the United 
States and Great Britain concerning a proposed canal 
between the two oceans presumably at Panama or 
Nicaragua. It is known as the Clayton-Bulwer 
Treaty. It provided that the two countries jointly 
construct the canal. Many years passed and nothing 
was done, largely because of our Civil War and the 
agitation which preceded and followed it. 

For years after the war nothing was done except 
a little surveying, and meantime a French company, 

354 



The Panama Canal 

led by De Lesseps, who had achieved such grand 
success at Suez, began cutting a canal at Panama. 
Several thousand men were kept at work for some 
years, beginning in 1881 ; but after spending many 
millions of dollars, it was discovered that the work 
was too vast for a private company with limited 
means, and the project was given up. 

Meantime the United States had been centering its 
attention upon the ]Sricaragua route; but after the 
French company had given up the work, the eyes 
of the country turned to Panama as the more desir- 
able route. But three obstacles must first be over- 
come before work could be done at Panama. First, 
the rights of the French company must be purchased ; 
second, the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty must be changed 
or abrogated so as to give the United States a free 
hand and become the sole constructor and owner of 
the canal, and third, an agreement must be made with 
Colombia, of which Panama was the most northern 
state. 

The first and second of these obstacles were soon 
removed. The French company sold its interest to 
the United States for the sum of $40,000,000. The 
Clayton-Bulwer treaty was superseded by the Hay- 
Pauncefote treaty of 1901, by which the neutrality 
of the canal was secured and the United States was 
to become the sole builder, owner, and protector. 

The affair with Colombia was not so easy to settle. 
A treaty was made by which Colombia was to receive 
$10,000,000 for the right of way across the isthmus, 
$250,000 annual rental beginning nine years later, 

355 



A Guide to American History 

and to retain the sovereignty of the canal zone across 
the isthmus, six miles in width. The lease was to be 
for a hundred years with the right of perpetual re- 
newal. The United States Senate promptly ratified 
this treaty in March, 1903; but the Colombian Sen- 
ate dallied with it, and in August rejected it by a 
unanimous vote. 

This action seemed strange from the fact that a 
canal across the isthmus would be a wonderful boon 
to Colombian prosperity, and that country could well 
afford to give a free right of way. But the object of 
the Senate in rejecting the treaty was soon discovered 
when Colombia offered to make a new treaty if the 
$10,000,000 bonus should be raised by the United 
States to $25,000,000. It was purely a mercenary 
matter, and the American people were disgusted with 
the turn of affairs, when Colombia should have done 
everything in her power to encourage the building of 
the canal. But a way out of the dilemma soon of- 
fered itself. 

Panama, restless for many years under Colombian 
rule, determined to rebel against it, to set up an in- 
dependent republic and deal alone with the United 
States. The revolt came in l^ovember of the same 
year, 1903, and the infant republic was soon recog- 
nized by the United States and by several European 
nations. Colombia was frantic, and she now offered 
to give the United States all canal rights free of 
charge, if the latter would permit her to send troops 
to subdue the revolt in Panama. But her change of 
heart came too late. The United States had taken 

356 



The Panama Canal 

the infant republic under its protection and the Co- 
lombian offer was declined. 

A government was established in the little repub- 
lic, and the next thing in the rapid movement of 
events was to make a canal treaty with the United 
States. This was soon done, and the treaty was rati- 
fied by both countries. It grants the United States, 
for the payment of $10,000,000 and $250,000 a year, 
sovereign rights over a canal belt ten miles wide 
across the isthmus, a distance of forty-nine miles. 
The money was soon paid and the work was begun in 
1904. 

The Sanitary Victory 

One cause of giving up the great work at Panama 
by the French was the deadly climate. Panama had 
long been kno\^Ti as one of the hottest, wettest, and 
most feverish regions of the world. The yellow fever 
was the one disease dreaded above all others, and 
great numbers of the French fell victims to this fatal 
malady. 

When gold was discovered in California sixty 
years ago many men of the East who started for the 
land of gold braved the deadly perils of Panama, and 
the death toll was heavy. Again, when the Panama 
railroad was built in the early fifties, the laborers 
were swept into the grave by thousands. It was plain 
that men who were not acclimatized were taking their 
lives in their own hands when they went to Panama. 

When in 1904 the Americans began to arrive on 
the isthmus the ravages of this dreaded disease 

357 



A Guide to American History 

greatly increased. There was a panic, and hundreds 
of men hastened to return home at the first opportu- 
nity. It was believed that the work would have to be 
given up. But since then there has been a transfor- 
mation, and it is chiefly due to one man — Colonel 
William Crawford Gorgas, a surgeon of the United 
States army. 

There is no such thing as a sickly or unwholesome 
climate anywhere, however hot and wet it may be. 
Disease germs come from the ground and not from 
the air. Purify the surface and you have a whole- 
some climate whatever the latitude. On this prin- 
ciple Dr. Gorgas proceeded when appointed by the 
President as chief sanitary oflScer of the canal zone 
across the isthmus. 

He had learned by experiment in Cuba that yel- 
low fever is entirely due to the bite of a certain kind 
of mosquito called the Stegomyia. To exterminate 
this pest on the canal belt was a tremendous task, but 
nothing else could stop the dread disease, and the doc- 
tor, with 2,000 assistants, set about it with tireless 
vigor. 

The natives of the towns and villages were utterly 
careless in their way of living. They supplied them- 
selves with water from open rain barrels, in which 
the mosquitoes were hatched by millions. The streets 
were filled with decaying vegetables and every im- 
aginable kind of nondescript rubbish. The land was 
covered with dense tropical jungles, with dismal 
swamps and sluggish streams, all of which were 
hatching places for the mosquitoes. 

358 



The Panama Canal 

In less than a year the streets were cleaned, the 
people were forced to adopt sanitary methods of liv- 
ing, the swamps were drained and the jungles in a 
large measure were removed. The result has been 
marvelous. In the entire year of 1906 there was but 
one case of yellow fever in the whole canal belt, and 
since then there has been none. 

Another mosquito, the Anopheles, is responsible for 
malaria, and so diligent has Dr. Gorgas been in his 
efforts to exterminate this one also, that malaria has 
greatly decreased among the people. On the whole 
the conquest in Panama by the Sanitary Commission 
is one of the greatest in history, and the whole world 
will profit by it. The general health on the isthmus 
to-day is quite as good as in other parts of the world. 

Magititude of the Work 

The greatest engineering project ever undertaken 
by man is the Panama Canal. It extends from the 
town of Colon on the Atlantic coast to the town of 
Panama on the Pacific. 

The course is diversified with hills and valleys, for- 
ests and streams. The highest of the hills is the Cule- 
bra Hill, the continental divide, a part, and one of 
the lowest parts, of the vast mountain system which 
extends from the Straits of Magellan to the Bering 
Sea. Culebra Hill is 330 feet above the sea level, 
and is nearer the Pacific than the Atlantic side. The 
cut through this hill will be nine miles long, and at 
the highest point 285 feet deep. 

359 



A Guide to American History 

The two great features of the canal will be the 
Culebra Cut and the Gatun Dam, which we must 
notice separately. 

The Culebra Cut, which is now being made at a 
rapid rate, means the removal of earth and rock that 
would fill a ditch three feet deep and three feet 
wide three times around the earth. At this time 
there are thousands of men working on this cut, and 
it will probably take ^Ye years more to complete it. 
There are in operation scores of huge steam shovels 
loading the dirt on the trains. There are nearly 800 
dirt trains of 23 cars each now in use, on 300 miles of 
temporary railroad. The spoil is carried ten miles on 
an average, and in the past twelve months the enor- 
mous amount of 280,000,000 tons was removed. 
The Culebra Hill must be cut down to within 45 feet 
of sea level, and the surface of the water in the canal, 
which will be 40 feet deep, will therefore be 85 
feet above sea level. The canal will not be less than 
300 feet wide at the bottom at any point, and as the 
sides will slope it will be wider at the top. At the 
highest point of Culebra Hill the walls of the canal 
will rise 245 feet above the water. 

Let us now take a glance at the Gatun Dam, which 
is toward the Atlantic side, about 24 miles from Cu- 
lebra. This dam will stop the flow of the Chagres 
Eiver and create an artificial lake 164 square miles 
in area. Through the heart of this lake the canal 
will pass and of course there will be but little excava- 
tion in this part. 

There is a line of hills parallel to the Atlantic 

360 



^A*^^'^^^'^'^' ^e 



^ 




^ ^^^^O OCEAN ^ 

Courttsy uj (he Outlook. 

Topographical Map of the Panama Canal. 



II 



The Panama Canal 

coast, and between the hills the Chagres River flows 
through a valley nearly a mile and a half in width. 
Across this valley from hill to hill will be the Gatun 
Dam. It will be made of earth, will be one third of 
a mile thick at the base and 135 feet at the top. The 
inclosed lake will be 85 feet above the sea level, and 
the top of the dam will be 25 feet above the lake, 
or 110 feet in height on the lower side. A vessel 
will be elevated to the lake by means of locks. For 
a long time it was undecided whether to build a sea 
level or a lock canal, and the latter was chosen be- 
cause a sea-level canal would cost far more and would 
take several years longer in the construction. The 
cost of the lock canal, as now estimated, will be about 
$360,000,000. This includes the $40,000,000 paid 
the French and the $10,000,000 paid Panama. 

So vast a work as the construction of this canal 
requires years of labor for thousands of men, and 
at first there was much concern as to where so many 
laborers could be found, as American laborers could 
not endure the tropical heat. But the question has 
been solved. The perfect sanitation and the good 
wages offered have brought more laborers than can be 
employed. 

The force now employed is considerably more than 
45,000 men. Of these about 5,000 are Americans, 
employed as clerks, engineers, foremen, and sanitary 
helpers. The common laborers are foreigners — 
Spaniards, Italians, and West India negroes, of 
whom there are 31,000. 

The chief engineer and manager of the whole work 

361 



A Guide to American History 

is Colonel George W. Goethals, a man of great ad- 
ministrative ability. 

Let lis in conclusion suppose the great canal fin- 
ished and make an imaginary trip through it. We 
shall make the trip in the great Cunard liner, the 
Mauretania, the largest vessel in the world, except 
one, the Lusitania, which is exactly the same size, 
and is owned by the same company. 

Our " ocean greyhound '' has a gross tonnage of 
32,500 tons, is Y90 feet long, 88 feet wide, and her 
engines equal 70,000 horse power. 

We approach the canal from the Caribbean Sea 
and after steaming about six miles from Colon we 
enter the first of the great concrete locks. The 
vessel comes to a stop, the canal at our stern is closed 
by colossal gates and the water let in from above. 
The huge steamship rises with the rising water until 
we are lifted perpendicularly 28 feet. ^N^ow the pon- 
derous sluice gates above are opened and we float into 
the second tier of locks. Here the same process is 
repeated, and again our great vessel is lifted 28 feet. 
Still again the same thing happens, and when our 
ship has been raised a third time we are on a level 
with the lake made by the great dam, 85 feet above 
sea level. 

Each tier of locks is in pairs, that is, there are 
two locks side by side, vessels going northward always 
taking one side and those going southward taking the 
other side. Each side is 1,000 feet long and 110 feet 
wide, and since our ship is only 790 feet long and 88 
feet wide, there is room to spare. 

862 



The Panama Canal 

It has taken an hour for us to pass through these 
three tiers of locks, and now we cross the great Gatun 
Dam onto the broad lake that is made by it. Through 
this lake we sail almost as fast as on the sea. The 
channel of the canal, which was cut among the low 
hills, is now many feet under the water — the water 
of the Chagres River, held by the dam. Through 
this lake we steam for nearly 24 miles when we come 
to the great Culebra Cut. As we pass through the 
cut we see the walls of the canal rise on either side 
245 feet at the highest point. 

If we meet another vessel we pass it without inter- 
ruption, as the canal is at least 300 feet wide at the 
bottom. In the Suez Canal when one large vessel 
passes another, one must tie up to a stake on the 
bank; but this is not necessary at Panama. 

After passing through the Culebra Cut, nearly ten 
miles long, we come to a town called Pedro Migues, 
where there is another lock that lowers our vessel 
30 feet into a little lake two miles wide, formed by 
damming a little river called the Pio Grande. 
Through this lake we sail to the town of Miraflores 
where a double flight of locks lets us down to the 
ocean's level. Then, after a sail of four miles, we 
swing out into the boundless Pacific. 

If our trip is from Xew York to San Prancisco, 
we have saved 8,415 miles by not having to go round 
Cape Horn ; if from Xew York to Sydney, Australia, 
our saving is about 4,000 miles. 

So great will be the cost of the Panama Canal 
that it will not probably be a paying investment for 

363 



I. 



A Guide to American History 

many years to come. But it was never intended as 
a money-making scheme. The United States is very 
rich and the expense of the canal will injure no one. 
We have recovered from the expenses of the Civil 
War, which cost ten times as much as the canal will 
cost. 

Every American has reason to be proud of this 
great interoceanic waterway. It will be of vast im- 
portance to modem civilization, and its advantage to 
the commercial world will be incalculable. 



THE END 



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